THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

ELI  SOBEL 


A    HISTORY 


OF 


GERMAN    LITERATURE 


A   HISTORY 


OF 


GERMAN    LITERATURE 


BY 

JOHN    G.   ROBERTSON 

LECTURER    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    STRASSBURG 


NEW     YORK 

G.    P.    PUTNAM'S     SONS 

EDINBURGH    AND    LONDON 

WILLIAM     BLACKWOOD    AND     SONS 

I9O2 


All  Rights  reserved 


Printed  by 
WILLIAM  BLACKWOOD  &  SONS,  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 


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URL 

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PREFACE. 


WHILE  the  general  object  and  scope  of  the  present 
History  of  German  Literature  are  sufficiently  obvious, 
some  explanation  is  necessary  with  regard  to  the 
illustrative  passages  which  form  one  of  its  features. 
Such  passages  are  accompanied,  in  the  case  of  older 
dialects,  by  a  literal  German  version,  which  is  to  be 
considered  as  a  glossary  rather  than  as  a  translation. 
It  is  believed  that  by  this  means  the  reader  will  be 
able  better  to  appreciate  the  meaning  and  poetic  value 
of  the  extracts  than  if  he  were  offered  an  English 
version  or  an  actual  translation  into  modern  German. 
Medieval  literature  cannot  be  approached  through  the 
medium  of  translations,  and,  as  F.  Pfeiffer  remarks  in 
the  introduction  to  his  edition  of  Walther  von  der 
Vogelweide,  "  Mittelhochdeutsche  Gedichte  auch  nur 
ertraglich  ins  Neuhochdeutsche  zu  iibersetzen,  ist  ein 
Ding  der  Unmoglichkeit."  Old  High  German,  Old 
Saxon  and  Middle  High  German  extracts  are  based 
on  standard  texts ;  but,  from  the  Early  High  German 
period  onwards,  titles  of  works  and  quotations  are 
taken  from  original  editions  —  that  is  to  say,  the 


VI  PREFACE. 

orthography  is  not  modernised.  The  bibliographical 
notes  are  restricted  to  references  which  are  likely  to 
be  of  service  to  the  English  or  American  student. 
As  a  work  which  is  to  be  found  in  every  larger 
library,  and  consequently  generally  accessible,  the 
collection  of  Deutsche  Nationallitteratur,  edited  by  J. 
Kiirschner,  is — irrespective  of  the  unequal  value  of  the 
individual  volumes — referred  to  throughout. 

For  what  I  owe  to  other  workers  in  the  field,  and 
for  invaluable  hints  and  suggestions  from  those  who 
have  helped  me  in  reading  the  proofs — especially  my 
friend  Professor  F.  H.  Wilkens  of  Union  College, 
Schenectady — I  have  to  express  my  hearty  thanks. 
Above  all,  I  am  indebted  to  the  Universitats-  und 
Landes-Bibliothek  in  Strassburg,  which  has  enabled 
me,  in  almost  all  cases,  to  write  from  a  first-hand 
acquaintance  with  the  literature. 

JOHN  G.  ROBERTSON. 

STRASSBURG,  July  i,  1902.  . 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE        ........        v 

INTRODUCTION  xv 


PART    I. 

©to  Ifyigb  ©erman 

CHAPTER  I. — EARLY  GERMANIC  CULTURE;  THE  MIGRATIONS. 

The  Germanic  races.  Tacitus's  account  of  the  West  Germans.  The 
Goths ;  Wulfila's  translation  of  the  Bible.  The  Migrations. 
Beginnings  of  the  national  epic  .  .  .  .  .3 

CHAPTER  II. — CHRISTIANITY.    LITERARY  BEGINNINGS  UNDER 
CHARLES  THE  GREAT. 

The  High  German  Soundshifting.  The  Merovingian  epoch.  Intro- 
duction of  Christianity.  Charles  the  Great.  Translations  of  the 
liturgy.  The  (Vessobrunner  Gebet  and  the  Hildebrandslied  .  10 

CHAPTER  III.— CHARLES  THE  GREAT'S  SUCCESSORS.    BIBLICAL 
POETRY. 

Ludwig  the  Pious.  Tatian's  Evangelienharmonie.  The  Old  Saxon 
Heliand  and  Genesis.  Ludwig  the  German.  The  Muspilli. 
Otfrid's  Evangelienbuch.  The  Ludwigslied  .  .  .  18 

CHAPTER  IV. — LATIN  LITERATURE  UNDER  THE  SAXON  EMPERORS. 
NOTKER.    THE  LITURGIC  DRAMA. 

The  Saxon  emperors.  The  Spielleute.  St  Gall ;  Waltharius  and 
Eebasis  captivi.  Hrotsuith  of  Gandersheim.  Ruodlieb.  Notker. 
The  origin  of  the  drama.  Religious  plays  .  .  •  27 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PART    II. 

iHtoUIe  f^tgf)  ©erman  ^Literature  (10504350). 

CHAPTER  I.— ASCETICISM.    THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  THE  POPULAR  EPIC. 

Monastic  reform.  "  Mariendichtung :)  and  theological  mysticism. 
The  Annolied  and  Kaiserchronik.  Konig  Rather.  Herzog  Ernst. 
The  Spielmann's  epic  .  .  .  .  ,  -39 

CHAPTER  II. — THE  POETRY  OF  KNIGHTHOOD;  THE  BEGINNINGS 

OF   THE   MlNNESANG. 

Influence  of  the  Crusades.  The  Alexanderlied  and  the  Rolandslied. 
Eilhart  von  Oberge.  The  Beast  epic.  Beginnings  of  the 
Minnesang.  "  Spruchdichtung "  .  .  .  .  50 

CHAPTER  III. — THE  NIBELUNGENLIED. 

The  Nibelungen  saga  and  Nibelungenlied.  Siegfried  and  Kriemhild  ; 
Gunther  and  Brunhild.  Siegfried's  death.  The  Burgundians  at 
Etzel's  Court  ;  Kriemhild's  revenge.  Diu  Klage  .  .  59 

CHAPTER  IV. — GUDRUN  AND  THE  HELOENBUCH. 

Hilde  and  Gudrun.  Gudrun  in  Normandy  ;  her  deliverance.  Com- 
parison of  Gudrun  with  the  Nibelungenlied.  The  Heldenbuch. 
The  Dietrich  cycle  of  epics.  Ortnit  and  Wolfdietrich  .  .  72 

CHAPTER  V.— THE  COURT  EPIC:   HEINRICH  VON  VELDEKE, 
HARTMAN  AND  WOLFRAM. 

Heinrich  von  Veldeke's  Eneit.  Herbert  von  Fritzlar  and  Albrecht 
von  Halberstadt.  Arthurian  romance.  Hartman  von  Aue. 
Wolfram's  Parzival,  Titurel  and  Willehalm  .  .  .82 

CHAPTER  VI. — GOTTFRIED  VON  STRASSBURG  ;  THE  DECAY  OF  THE 
COURT  EPIC. 

Gottfried's  Tristan.  The  later  Court  epic.  The  influence  of 
Hartman,  Wolfram  and  Gottfried.  Ulrich  von  Liechtenstein. 
Meier  Helmbreht.  Rudolf  von  Ems  and  Konrad  von  Wurzburg  99 


CONTENTS.  IX 


CHAPTER  VII. — THE  MINNESANG. 

Minnesang  and  Minnedienst.  Friedrich  von  Hausen,  Heinrich  von 
Morungen  and  Reinmar  von  Hagenau.  Walther  von  der  Vogel- 
weide.  Neidhart  von  Reuenthal.  Later  Minnesingers  .  .  115 

CHAPTER  VIII. — DIDACTIC  POETRY  AND  PROSE. 

Der  Winsbeke,  Thomasin  von  Zirclaere's  Welscher  Cast  and  Freidank's 
Bescheidenheit.  Hugo  von  Trimberg.  The  sermons  of  David  of 
Augsburg  and  Berthold  of  Regensburg  .  .  .  .  133 


PART    III. 

SEarlg  &efa  pfig!j  (Herman  ^Literature  (13504700). 

CHAPTER  I. — THE  DECAY  OF  ROMANCE.    SATIRE  AND  BEAST  FABLE. 

The  decay  of  chivalry  and  the  rise  of  the  middle  classes.  Prose 
romances.  Anecdotal  literature.  The  Beast  fable  :  Reynke  de 
Vos.  Brant's  Narrenschiff,  "  Reimsprecher "  .  .  .  143 

CHAPTER  II. — MEISTERGESANG  AND  VOLKSLIED. 

Hugo  von  Montfort  and  Oswald  von  Wolkenstein.  The  Meister- 
singers  and  their  "  Singschulen."  The  Volkslied.  Historical 
ballads;  love  songs  and  drinking  songs.  The  religious  Lied  .  156 

CHAPTER  III. — MYSTICISM  AND  HUMANISM  ;  THE  REFORMATION. 

The  Mystics :  Eckhart  and  Tauler.  Geiler.  The  literature  of 
humanism  :  Erasmus.  Martin  Luther.  Luther's  Bible ;  his 
Geistliche  Lieder  and  Tischreden.  Ulrich  von  Hutten.  Murner  166 

CHAPTER  IV. — THE  REFORMATION  DRAMA. 

Early  "  Fastnachtsspiele."  Influence  of  the  Reformation.  The 
Latin  school  comedy.  Swiss  dramatists.  Rebhun  and  Frischlin. 
Hans  Sachs ;  his  Fastnachtsspiele  and  longer  dramas  .  .  180 

CHAPTER  V. — SATIRE  AND  DRAMA  IN  THE  LATER  SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

Wickram,  Ringwaldt  and  Rollenhagen.  Fischart.  The  Volksbuch 
of  Faust,  Revival  of  the  drama  under  English  in.fluen.ce  ;  Duke 
Heinrich  Julius  of  Brunswick  and  Jakob  Ayrer  .  .  .192 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VI. — THE  RENAISSANCE. 

Humanists  in  Heidelberg.  Martin  Opitz  and  his  Btuli  von  der 
tietttschen  Poetcrey.  The  literary  societies.  Dach,  Fleming  and 
Rist.  The  dramas  of  Gryphius  .  .  ,  '  .  .  203 

CHAPTER  VII. — RELIGIOUS  POETRY  ;  EPIGRAM  AND  SATIRE. 

Angelus  Silesius  and  Spec.  The  Protestant  hymn  :  Gerhardt. 
Logau's  epigrams.  Satirists  :  Lauremberg  and  Rachel.  Schupp 
and  Abraham  a  Santa  Clara  .  ."  ""'•'  '  .  •  ••  .  217 

CHAPTER  VIII.— THE  NOVEL  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Moscherosch.  Grimmelshausen's  Simplicissimus.  Weise  and 
Reuter.  The  "  Robinsonaden."  Zesen.  Ziegler's  Asiatische 
Banise.  Hofmannswaldau  and  Lohenstein  .  .  .  226 


PART    IV. 

2Ef)E  SEigfjtEentf)  Centurg. 

CHAPTER  I. — RATIONALISM  AND  ENGLISH  INFLUENCE. 

Revival  of  Pietism  :  Spener.  Rationalism :  Thomasius,  Leibniz 
and  Wolff.  Giinther.  Brockes  and  Hagedorn.  Haller.  The 
"  Moralischen  Wochenschriften " .  .  .  .  :  .  237 

CHAPTER  II. — LEIPZIG  AND  ZURICH  AS  LITERARY  CENTRES. 

Gottsched  :  his  Critische  Dichtkunst.  Conflict  with  Bodmer  and 
Breitinger.  The  Brenier  Beytrdge ;  J.  E.  Schlegel,  Zachada, 
Rabener  and  Gellert  Fable  writers  .  .  .  245 

CHAPTER  III.— THE  PRUSSIAN  POETS;  KLOPSTOCK. 

Halle  as  a  literary  centre :  Pyra  and  Lange  ;  Gleim,  Uz  and  Gotz. 
E.  C.  von  Kleist.  Ramler.  Frederick  the  Great.  Klopstock  ; 
his  Afessias  and  Oifen.  The  "bards."  Gessner  .  .  .  256 

CHAPTER  IV.— LESSING. 

Early  dramas  and  criticism.  His  Leipzig  friends.  Die  Litteratur- 
briefe.  Winckelmann.  Laokoon,  Minna  von  Barnhelm  and  the 
Hamburgische  Dramaturgie.  Emilia  Galotti  and  Nathan  der 
Weise  268 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  V. — WIELAND  ;  MINOR  PROSE  WRITERS. 

Wieland's  novels  and  verse  romances  :  Agathon,  Die  Abderiten, 
Oberon.  Wieland's  influence.  The  novel :  imitations  of  Richard- 
son. Popular  philosophers.  Lichtenberg  .  .  .  283 

CHAPTER  VI.— HERDER;  THE  G$TTINGEN  BUND. 

Ilamann.  Herder's  Fragmente  and  Von  deutscher  Art  und  Kumt. 
Volkslieder.  Ideen  zur  Philosophic  der  Geschichte.  The  Gottingen 
Dichterbund.  Voss  and  Holty.  Claudius,  Gockingk  and  Burger  293 

CHAPTER  VII.— "STURM  UND  DRANG";  GOETHE'S  YOUTH. 

The  "  Geniezeit."  Goethe  as  a  student  in  Leipzig  and  Strassburg. 
Early  writings.  His  Sesenheim  lyrics.  Gbtz  von  Berlichingen, 
Werther  and  Clavigo.  Faust  in  its  earliest  form.  Egmont  .  307 

CHAPTER  VIII. — THE  MINOR  "  STURMER  UND  DRANGER"; 
SCHILLER'S  EARLY  YEARS. 

Gerstenberg.  Lenz.  Klinger's  first  period.  Leisewitz,  Wagner  and 
Maler  Miiller.  Schiller's  youth  :  Die  Rduber^  Fiesco  and  Kabale 
und  Liebe.  Schubart  ......  323 

CHAPTER  IX.— SCHILLER'S  SECOND  PERIOD.     END  OF  THE 
"STURM  UND  DRANG." 

Don  Carlos.  Schiller  as  historian.  The  drama :  Schroder  and 
Iffland.  The  "  Ritterdrama."  The  theatre  in  Austria.  Ileinse. 
Klinger's  novels.  Moritz  and  Forster  ....  336 

CHAPTER  X. — GOETHE'S  FIRST  TWENTY  YEARS  IN  WEIMAR. 

Goethe  as  minister  of  State.  Frau  von  Stein.  Goethe's  lyrics  of  this 
period.  His  visit  to  Italy.  Iphigenie  and  Tasso.  Return  to 
Weimar.  Wilhelm  Meislers  Lehrjahre  ....  348 

CHAPTER  XI. — THE  CRITICAL  PHILOSOPHY.     GOETHE  AND 
SCHILLER'S  FRIENDSHIP. 

Kant's  three  Kriliken.  Schiller's  writings  on  aesthetics ;  his  philo- 
sophic lyrics.  Humboldt.  Schiller's  friendship  with  Goethe. 
Die  Horen.  Die  Xenien.  Wallenstein  .  .  .  36* 


xii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. — GOETHE'S  CLASSICISM  ;  THE  FIRST  PART  OF  FAUST. 

Hermann  nnd  Dorothea.  The  "  Balladenalmanach."  Schiller's 
Lied  von  tier  Glocke.  Goethe  and  the  French  Revolution  :  his 
Natiirliche  Tochter  and  Pandora.  Faust,  erster  Theil  .  .  374 

CHAPTER  XIIL— SCHILLER'S  LAST  DRAMAS. 

The  Weimar  Court  theatre.  Kotzebue.  Schiller's  Maria  Stuart, 
Jungfrau  von  Orleans,  Braut  von  Messina,  Wilhelm  Tell  and 
Demetrius.  Schiller's  death  .....  387 

CHAPTER  XIV. — MINOR  POETS  OF  THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD.    THE 
TRANSITION  TO  ROMANTICISM. 

Matthisson.  Tiedge.  Kosegarten.  Seume.  From  Classicism  to 
Romanticism  :  Fichte,  Richter  and  Holderlin.  Dialect  litera- 
ture :  Hebel  and  Usteri  ......  399 


PART    V. 

SEfje  Ih'ncteentfi  Centurjr. 

CHAPTER  I. — THE  ROMANTIC  SCHOOL. 

Founding  of  the  school.  A.  W.  Schlegel  as  critic  ;  his  translation  of 
Shakespeare.  F.  Schlegel.  Tieck  and  Wackenroder.  Novalis. 
Schelling  and  Schleiermacher  .  .  .  .  .  415 

CHAPTER  II.— ROMANTIC  DRAMA  AND  PATRIOTIC  LYRIC. 

The  "  Schicksalstragodie  "  :  Werner,  Milliner  and  Houwald.  Kleist. 
Lyric  of  the  "  Befreiungskrieg  "  :  Korner,  Arndt  and  Schenken- 
dorf.  Riickert  and  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben  .  .  .  430 

CHAPTER  III.— GOETHE'S  LATER  YEARS. 

Goethe  and  Napoleon.  Die  Wahlvenvandlschaften.  Dichtung  und 
Wahrheit.  Scientific  interests.  Der  West-'dstliche  Divan.  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Wander jahre.  Faust,  zweiter  Theil  .  .  .  443 

CHAPTER  IV. — THE  HEIDELBERG  ROMANTICISTS. 

The  Heidelberg  school :  Brentano,  Arnim  and  Gcirres.  Des  Knaben 
Wunderhorn.  The  brothers  Grimm ;  German  philology.  Arnim's 
Kronen-waehter  and  Brentano's  Grundung  Prags  .  .  458 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  V. — ROMANTICISM  IN  BERLIN.    THE  PHILOSOPHIC 
MOVEMENT. 

Berlin  as  a  literary  centre.  La  Motte  Fouque.  Chamisso.  Eichen- 
dorfFs  lyrics  and  novels.  Gentz  and  Miiller.  Savigny.  The 
philosophy  of  Hegel  and  Schopenhauer  .  468 

CHAPTER  VI. — THE  DECAY  OF  ROMANTICISM. 

E.  T.  A.  Hoffmann.  Tieck's  later  "  Novellen."  Schulze.  Riickert. 
W.  Miiller.  Poetry  of  the  Greek  Revolt.  Gaudy  and  Mosen. 
"Polenlieder"  .  .  .  .  .  .  .4^0 

CHAPTER  VII. — HISTORICAL  FICTION  AND  DRAMA.     IMMERMANN 
AND  PLATEN. 

The  historical  novel :  Hauff  and  Haring  (Alexis).  Zschokke.  The 
drama :  Grabbe,  Beer  and  Holtei.  The  Romantic  opera : 
Weber  and  Marschner.  Immermann  and  Platen  .  .  491 

CHAPTER  VIII.— "  YOUNG  GERMANY/' 

"  Das  junge  Deutschland."  Wienbarg.  Borne.  Heine  ;  his  lyrics 
and  ballads.  As  a  prose-writer.  Gutzkow's  novels  and  dramas. 
Laube.  Mundt,  Gervinus  and  Menzel.  Bettina  von  Arnim  .  501 

CHAPTER  IX. — THE  SWABIAN  SCHOOL. 

Romanticism  in  Swabia.  Uhland  ;  his  ballads  and  dramas.  Kerner, 
Schwab  and  Waiblinger.  MSrike  as  lyric  poet ;  his  Maler  Nolten. 
Kurz.  Vischer  .  .  .  .  .  .  .518 

CHAPTER  X. — LITERATURE  IN  AUSTRIA;   GRILLPARZER. 

The  Metternich  regime.  Collin  and  Schreyvogel.  Grillparzer;  his 
dramatic  work.  Halm  and  Bauernfeld.  Raimund  and  Nestroy. 
Zedlitz,  Griin  and  Lenau  ......  529 

CHAPTER  XI. — THE  POLITICAL  LYRIC. 

Becker  and  Prutz.  Herwegh.  Freiligrath.  Dingelstedt.  Hoffmann 
von  Fallersleben.  Revolutionary  poets  in  Austria.  Kinkel. 
Geibel.  Strachwitz.  Annette  von  Droste-HUlshoff  .  .  544 


xiv  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XII. — LITERATURE  OF  THE  PROVINCE.     THE  DRAMA. 

The  novel  of  peasant-life  :  Gotthelf  and  Auerbach.  Stifter.  Reuter 
and  Groth.  Dramatic  literature  :  Hebbel  ;  his  plays.  Ludwig 
as  dramatist  and  novelist.  Minor  playwrights  .  .  .  557 

CHAPTER  XIII. — THE  NOVEL  FROM  1848  TO  1870. 

The  philosophic  movement.  Freytag ;  his  dramas  and  novels. 
Spielhagen.  The  historical  and  antiquarian  romance.  Keller 
and  Storm.  Women-writers.  Jordan  .  .  .  .  572 

CHAPTER  XIV. — THE  MUNICH  GROUP.     HISTORY  AND  CRITICISM. 

Geibel  in  Munich.  Schack.  Bodenstedt.  Leuthold  and  Lingg. 
Scheflfel  and  his  imitators.  Lorm  and  Hamerling.  Heyse. 
Wilbrandt  and  Jensen.  Humourists.  Historians  and  critics  .  586 

CHAPTER  XV. — FROM  1870  TO  1890 ;   RICHARD  WAGNER. 

German  unification.  Wagner  and  his  dramatic  work.  The  Bayreuth 
Festspiele.  The  "  Meininger."  Wildenbruch.  Anzengruber. 
C.  F.  Meyer.  Austrian  novelists.  Fontane  .  .  .  59^ 

CHAPTER  XVI. — THE  END  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY. 

Nietzsche  and  individualism.  The  lyric :  Liliencron.  The  realistic 
movement.  Sudermann  and  Hauptmann.  Minor  dramatists. 
The  novel  at  the  end  of  the  century  .  .  .  .611 


INDEX  ........    623 


INTRODUCTION. 


ALTHOUGH  the  criteria  of  poetic  excellence  in  Germany  have 
often  differed  widely  from  those  acknowledged  elsewhere,  the 
historical  development  of  German  literature  has  naturally 
many  features  in  common  with  that  of  other  European 
literatures ;  and,  while  its  periods  of  flourishing  and  decay 
have  rarely  coincided  with  those  in  France,  in  England,  or 
even  in  Scandinavia,  they  have,  in  general,  been  rooted  in 
social  and  intellectual  movements,  the  significance  of  which 
was  more  than  national.  In  Germany,  as  in  other  lands,  for 
example,  a  shadowy  pre-Christian  epoch  was  followed  by  an 
age  of  rigid  monasticism  ;  the  knight  of  the  Crusades  receded 
before  the  burgher  of  the  rising  towns,  and  Reformation  was 
intimately  associated  with  Renaissance.  And  in  more  recent 
centuries,  Germany  has  responded  even  more  quickly  than 
her  neighbours  to  the  social  and  intellectual  changes  which, 
heedless  of  national  or  linguistic  barriers,  have,  from  time 
to  time,  swept  across  Europe.  While  no  modern  literature 
has  grown  up  in  entire  independence,  none  is  bound  by 
closer  ties  or  is  more  indebted  to  its  fellows  than  that  of 
Germany.  Before  entering  on  the  study  of  this  literature, 
it  is  consequently  important  to  make  clear,  by  means  of  a 
comparative  survey,  the  position  which  it  occupies  in  Europe 
and  the  relations  in  which  it  stands  to  other  literatures;  to 
establish  in  how  far  divergences  in  the  evolution  of  German 

b 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

letters  are  to  be  ascribed  to  national   temperament,  in  how 
far  to  accidents  of  social  or  political  history. 

Divisions  Historically  regarded,  German  literature1  admits  of  a 
uterature."  natural  division  into  three  epochs,  each  of  which  is  dis- 
tinguished by  special  linguistic  characteristics :  an  Old  High 
German  period,  in  which  the  dialects  of  South  Germany  re- 
tained the  wide  range  of  vowel  sounds  to  be  found  in  all  the 
older  Germanic  languages ;  a  Middle  High  German  epoch, 
beginning  about  1050,  in  which  that  diversity  of  vowel  sounds 
and  grammatical  forms  had  in  great  measure  disappeared ; 
and,  lastly,  a  New  High  German  or  modern  German  period, 
which  began  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
During  the  second  of  these  periods,  the  High  German  dialects 
gained  an  ascendancy  over  those  of  the  North  and  of  Central 
Germany,  while,  in  New  High  German  times,  German  litera- 
ture is  practically  restricted  to  High  German. 

Setting  out  from  the  fact  that  the  "  Bliitezeit "  of  German 
poetry,  at  the  turn  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  was 
followed  by  a  period  of  depression,  which,  ultimately,  towards 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  made  way  for  the  crowning 
age  of  German  classical  poetry,  Wilhelm  Scherer  attempted 
to  establish  for  German  literature  a  general  law  of  evolution.2 
He  regarded  it  as  oscillating  between  "periods  of  flourish- 
ing," which  recurred  at  regular  intervals  of  six  hundred  years ; 
according  to  his  hypothesis,  the  epoch  which  touched  its 

1  Cp.  A..  Koberstein,  Grundriss  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  National- 
litteratur  (1827),  £th  ed.,  by  K.  Bartsch,  6  vols.,  Leipzig,  1872-74  (vol.  i.  of  a 
sixth  edition  appeared  in  1884) ;  G.  C.  Gervinus,  Geschichte  der  deutschen. 
Dichtung  (1835-36),  5th  ed.,  by  K.  Bartsch,  5  vols.,  Leipzig,  1871-74;  A.  F. 
C.  Vilmar,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Nationallitteratur  (1848),  24th  ed.,  with  a 
continuation  by  A.  Stern,  Marburg,  1894 ;  W.  Wackernagel,  Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Litteratur  (1848-53),  2nd  ed.,  by  E.  Martin,  Basle,  1879-94  '•  K. 
Goedeke,  Grundriss  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtung  ( 1857-81),  2nd  ed., 
Dresden,  1884  ff.  (seven  volumes  have  appeared) ;  W.  Scherer,  Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Litteratur  (1883),  gth  ed.,  Berlin,  1902;  F.  Vogt  and  M.  Koch, 
Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  von  den  dltesten  Zeiten  bis  zur  Gegenwart, 
Leipzig,  1897;  K.  Francke,  German  Literature,  as  determined  by  Social  Forces, 
4th  ed.,  New  York,  1901.  Cp.  also  J.  Kiirschner,  Deutsche  Nationallitteratur, 
222  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1882-98  (referred  to  in  the  present  volume  as  D.N.L.) 

8  Geschichte. der  deutschen  Litteratur,  91)1  ed.,  18  f. 


INTRODUCTION.  XVli 

zenith  in  1200  was  preceded  by  an  earlier  "  Bliitezeit "  of 
unwritten  literature,  which  reached  its  highest  point  about 
600.  Literary  evolution,  however,  is  too  complicated  a 
phenomenon  to  be  explained  by  laws  simple  as  those  which 
Kepler  applied  to  the  planetary  system  ;  in  any  case,  Scherer's 
first  "  period  of  flourishing "  is  only  a  hypothesis.  Other 
Germanic  races,  such  as  the  Goths,  had,  as  early  as  the 
fourth  century,  acquired  a  certain  facility  of  literary  expres- 
sion, and  the  Anglo-Saxon  epic  of  Beoivulf  dates  from  the 
seventh  or  eighth  century;  but,  considering  only  the  West 
Germanic  races  of  the  continent — those  which  especially  con- 
cern us  here — we  possess  but  one  fragment  of  a  heroic  lay, 
the  Hildebrandslied,  and  a  couple  of  pre-Christian  charms, 
as  a  testimony  to  the  nation's  imagination  previous  to  the 
Carlovingian  epoch.  The  themes  of  the  German  national 
epic  had  originated,  it  is  true,  in  the  period  of  the  Migra- 
tions ;  but  whether  the  traditions  had,  in  that  age,  taken  a 
form  which  could  be  described  as  literary,  is  open  to  doubt. 

The  Old  High  German  period  of  German  literature x  ex-  The  Old 
tended  from  about  750  to   1050;  but,  as  the  chief  literary  German 
remains  date  only  from  the  ninth   century,  this  epoch  may,   period, 
roughly  speaking,  be  said  to  lie  between  the  age  in  which 
Anglo-Saxon  poetry  flourished  and  the  age  of  Anglo-Saxon 
prose.    It  was  essentially  a  period  of  monkish  ascendancy,  and 
— if  we  except  the  epic  poetry  of  the  Saxons — the  Germanic 
imagination  was  held  rigidly  in  check  by  Christianity.      In 
the  unequal  battle  between  the  World  and  the  Church,  the 
former  succumbed,  and  the  Latin  Renaissance  of  the  eleventh 
century  finally  crushed  out  the  weak  beginnings  of  a  national 
literature.     Meanwhile,  however,  the  Romance  literatures  of 

1  Cp.  J.  Kelle,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur,  i  (to  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century),  Berlin,  1892 ;  R.  Koegel,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  bis 
sum  Ausgang  ties  Mittelalters,  i  (in  two  parts),  Strassburg,  1894-97;  also  R- 
Koegel  and  W.  Bruckner,  in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie, 
2nd  ed.,  2,  i,  Strassburg,  1901,  29  ff.  ;  W.  Golther,  Geschichte  der  deutschen 
Litteratur  von  den  ersten  Anfdngen  bis  sum  Ausgang  des  Alittelallers  (D.N.L., 
163,  i),  Stuttgart  [1892]. 


XV111 


INTRODUCTION. 


Middle 
High 
German 
literature. 


the  South  and  West  of  Europe  were  developing  more 
rapidly  than  those  of  the  North.  While,  early  in  the  twelfth 
century,  Germany  was  still  engaged  in  freeing  herself  from 
monastic  asceticism,  and  England  was  being  remodelled  by  the 
Normans,  French  singers  were  composing  the  first  national 
chansons^  the  lyric  of  the  troubadours  was  flourishing  in  Prov- 
ence, and  the  Poema  del  Cid  had  taken  shape  in  Spain. 

The  revival  of  German  poetry — now  known  as  Middle  High 
German1 — was  late  in  setting  in,  but  when  it  did  come,  it 
advanced  with  all  the  more  rapidity.  In  the  course  of  the 
twelfth  century,  the  iron  rule  of  the  Church  began  to  yield, 
worldly  themes  took  the  place  of  religious  legends  as  subjects 
for  poetry,  and  wandering  singers  or  "Spielleute"  became 
a  factor  of  importance.  Had  German  literature  been  left 
wholly  to  itself,  its  history  in  the  thirteenth  century  might 
possibly  have  been  analogous  to  that  of  English  literature  of 
the  same  period ;  but,  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, German  poets  came  under  the  influence  of  their  French 
contemporaries,  and,  within  a  few  decades,  Middle  High 
German  literature  had  far  outstripped  all  its  neighbours. 
The  Arthurian  epic  became  in  Germany,  what  it  already  was 
in  France,  the  chosen  form  of  courtly  romance,  and  the 
national  sagas  were  remodelled  under  the  stimulus  of  the  new 
ideals :  even  the  German  lyric  was  indebted  to  Provencal 
singers.  Thus,  it  might  be  said  that  the  zenith  of  Middle 
High  German  poetry  fell  a  little  later  than  that  of  medieval 
literature  in  France,  and  a  full  century  before  French  chivalric 
literature  awakened  an  echo  in  England. 

Middle  High  German  poetry  was  exposed  to  the  same 
causes  of  decay  as  those  to  which  all  pre-Renaissance  litera- 

1  Cp.  F.  Khull,  Geschichte  der  altdeutschen  Dichtung,  Graz.  1886 ;  F.  Vogt 
in  Paul's  Grundriss  dcr  germanisclien  Philologie,  2nd  ed.,  2,  i,  Strassburg, 
1901,  161  ff.  The  beginning  of  the  period  is  discussed  by  J.  Kelle  in  his 
Geschichte  der  dcutschen  Litteratur,  2,  Berlin,  1896,  and  in  W.  Scherer, 
Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtung  im  n.  und  12.  Jahrhundert  (Quellen  und 
Forschungcn,  12),  Strassburg,  1875,  and  Geistliche  Poeten  der  deutschen  Kaiser- 
zeit  (same  series,  i  and  7),  Strassburg,  1874-75. 


INTRODUCTION.  XIX 

tures  were  subject ;  in  Germany,  as  elsewhere,  the  change 
which  came  over  medieval  society  —  the  disappearance  of 
knighthood  and  the  rise  of  the  middle  classes  —  left  deep 
traces  on  literature :  verse  yielded  to  prose,  relative  form 
to  formlessness,  and  the  nai've  art  of  the  courtly  singers  to 
didacticism  and  satire.  But  there  was  also  another  reason 
for  the  rapid  decay  of  what  was  the  richest,  because  the 
most  concentrated,  of  all  medieval  literatures.  The  Middle 
High  German  period  was,  as  will  be  seen,  almost  exclusively 
an  epoch  of  poetry ;  Germany  had  no  prose  writers,  no  Ville- 
hardouin  or  Joinville,  no  Duns  Scotus  or  Roger  Bacon  ;  she 
had  only  poets,  neither  thinkers  nor  historians,  and  before  the 
thirteenth  century  had  reached  its  close,  her  literature,  like 
a  plant  without  adequate  roots,  had  withered  away.  And  in 
the  following  century — the  fourteenth — when  Italy  could  point 
to  Dante,  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  when,  in  France,  the  long 
age  of  medieval  romance  was  followed  by  a  period  of  satire 
and  allegory,  and  English  poetry  was  steadily  advancing 
towards  the  poetic  efflorescence  associated  with  Chaucer, 
Germany  fell  back  into  comparative  darkness ;  her  writers 
appealed  only  to  the  crass  tastes  of  the  people.  Not,  indeed, 
until  after  the  early  Italian  Renaissance  and  the  culture  of 
the  Humanists1  had  spread  beyond  the  Alps,  did  the  Ger- 
mans begin  to  do  what  their  neighbours  had  done  before 
them,  namely,  to  establish  universities  and  thus  lay  a  solid 
basis  for  a  national  literature.  At  a  time  when  Froissart  was 
writing  French  history,  and  Wyclif  was  fighting  for  reforma- 
tion in  England,  mystics  like  Eckhart  and  Tauler  were  only 
beginning  to  lay  the  real  foundations  of  German  intellectual  life. 

Germany's   recovery  from    this    period   of  depression  was,   Reforma- 
however,    phenomenally   rapid.      At    the    beginning    of    the   R°"^"f 
fifteenth  century,  the  German  -  speaking  races   had    virtually  sance. 
no  literature  and  little  prospect  of  one ;  but  not  a  hundred 
years  elapsed  before  Luther  had  inaugurated  the  Protestant 

1  Cp.  L.  Geiger,  Renaissance  und  Humanismus  in  Italien  -and  Deutschland, 
and  ed.,  Berlin,  1899. 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

Reformation  and  placed  his  people  in  the  van  of  European 
progress.  The  epoch  between  the  decay  of  Middle  High 
German  as  a  distinct  language,  and  the  final  cystallisation 
of  modern  German,  it  is  usual  to  describe  as  Early  New 
High  German.  The  literature  of  these  centuries  is  intim- 
ately associated  with  Reformation  and  Renaissance  ;  but  it 
is  significant  for  the  German  national  character  that  the  effects 
of  the  Renaissance  did  not  make  themselves  felt  in  Germany 
until  after  the  Reformation.  In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  the  Humanists,  it  is  true,  had  endeavoured  to 
awaken  Germany  to  the  importance  of  the  classic  revival,  by 
bringing  the  treasures  of  Southern  literature  within  the  grasp 
of  German  poets,  but  their  efforts  met  with  little  success. 
Until  the  way  had  been  prepared  for  it  by  the  Reformation, 
the  Renaissance  made  no  lasting  impression  on  German 
literature.  In  its  defiant  individualism,  Protestantism  was 
thoroughly  Germanic  ;  under  its  influence,  the  literature  of  the 
people  finally  triumphed  over  the  literature  of  knighthood ; 
satire  and  fable  flourished  as  never  before,  and  the  drama — 
hitherto  restricted  to  liturgic  representations  in  the  churches 
— was  on  the  way  to  becoming  what  it  had  long  been  in 
England  and  France,  a  national  art.  Thus,  once  more,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Germany  did  not  lag 
very  far  behind  the  other  nations  of  Europe ;  but  her  progress 
was  due  to  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation,  not  to  that  of  the 
Renaissance,  and  her  poetry  was  Germanic,  as  it  had  never 
yet  been — even  at  the  zenith  of  the  Middle  High  German 
period.  Just,  however,  as  German  culture  had  reached  a  stage 
of  its  development  when  it  might  have  benefited  by  the  Latin 
Renaissance  —  in  the  seventeenth  century  —  the  nation  was 
overwhelmed  by  the  most  appalling  catastrophe  in  modern 
history,  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  The  literature  of  the 
Reformation  era,  so  full  of  promise,  dwindled  away  in  arti- 
ficial imitation  and  formless  satire ;  religious  poetry  alone 
was  able  to  withstand  the  general  decay.  In  the  great  era 
in  European  literature  which  opened  with  Shakespeare  and 


INTRODUCTION.  xxi 

Bacon,  with  Tassb,  Cervantes  and  Lope  de  Vega,  and  closed 
with  Calderon,  Milton  and  the  master-dramatists  of  France, 
Corneille,  Racine  and  Moliere — the  most  brilliant  literary  era 
in  the  history  of  the  world — Germany  had  no  share.  Crude 
imitations  of  Elizabethan  dramas  took  the  place  of  the  abortive 
national  drama ;  versions  of  Spanish  picaresque  novels  and 
French  heroic  romances  formed  the  chief  reading  of  the  cul- 
tured public  :  in  place  of  a  Shakespeare,  a  Gryphius  ;  in  place 
of  a  Cervantes,  a  Grimmelshausen ;  while  the  lessons  which 
France  learned  from  Boileau,  Germany  received  from  the 
subordinate  genius  of  Opitz.  It  was  the  very  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  before  a  thinker  of  the  standing  of 
Leibniz  saved  the  honour  of  the  German  name  and  laid 
the  foundations  for  a  brighter  future.1 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  while  England  The 
and  France  stood  in  the  foreground  of  European  intellectual 
life,  Germany  was  again  the  outcast.  And  this  time,  the 
gulf  that  separated  her  from  the  neighbouring  nations  was 
even  greater  than  in  the  Reformation  era,  the  task  before 
the  nation  correspondingly  harder.  German  literature  of 
the  eighteenth  century 2  falls  into  two  natural  divisions,  the 
first  of  which  was  characterised  by  imitation  of  French  and, 
more  especially,  of  English  models,  while  the  second  was 
a  period  of  national  originality.  Under  the  influence  of 
the  English  nature  -  poets,  Klopstock  created  the  modern 
German  lyric ;  under  that  of  Richardson  and  Fielding, 
Gellert  and  Wieland  laid  the  basis  of  the  novel ;  while, 
in  the  school  of  English  thinkers  and  dramatists,  Lessing 
became  the  master -critic  of  his  time,  and  the  pioneer 

1  Cp.  C.  Lemcke,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtung  never  Zeit,  i  (Von 
Opitz  bis  Klopstock}>   2nd  eel.,   Leipzig,   1882;    K.    Borinski,    Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Litteratur  seit  dent  Ausgang  des  Mittelalters  (D.N.L.,    163,  2), 
Stuttgart  [1894]. 

2  Cp.  J.  Schmidt,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  von  Leibniz  bis  auf 
unsere  Zeit,  4  vols.,  Berlin,  1886-90;   H.  Hettner,  Geschichte  der  deutschen 
Litteratur  im  18.  Jahrhundert,  4th  ed.  (edited  by  O.  Harnack),  2  vols.,  Bruns- 
wick, 1893-95 ;   J.  W.  Schaefer,   Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  des  18. 
Jahrhunderts,  2nd  ed.  (edited  by  F.  Muncker),  Leipzig,  1881. 


XXll  INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  modern  German  drama.  By  the  middle  of  the 
century,  when  Goethe  was  born,  Germany  had  thus  made 
a  vast  stride  forwards.  In  drama,  she  could  not  compare 
with  Italy,  where  Metastasio,  Goldoni  and  Gozzi  were  still 
alive  to  uphold  the  Italian  theatre,  but,  in  all  else,  she  was 
in  advance  of  both  Italy  and  Spain.  Goethe's  childhood 
was  contemporary  with  the  age  of  Goldsmith  and  the  great 
English  historians — that  on  which  Dr  Johnson  set  his  stamp 
— while  the  fresh,  vigorous  beginnings  of  Ewald  von  Kleist 
and  Klopstock  belong,  significantly  enough,  to  the  same 
period  as  the  mature  poetry  of  Gray.  But  France  was 
the  source  of  ideas  no  less  vital  to  German  development 
than  were  those  that  came  from  England,  and  Lessing 
and  Winckelmann  were  overshadowed  by  their  French 
contemporaries,  Voltaire,  Diderot  and  Rousseau. 

As  the  century  drew  to  its  close,  the  individual  character 
of  the  German  mind  became  more  and  more  marked.  The 
outburst  of  "Sturm  und  Drang"  was,  although  inspired  by 
Rousseau,  almost  an  isolated  phenomenon  in  the  European 
literature  of  the  time ;  the  buoyant  vigour  of  the  German 
drama  was  without  a  parallel ;  the  ballad  -  poetry  of  men 
like  Burger  was  only  equalled  by  the  Percy  Reliques  on 
which  it  was  modelled ;  with  the  single  exception  of  Burns, 
there  was  not  a  lyric  poet  in  Europe  who  could  be  com- 
pared with  the  leading  German  singers  of  that  eventful 
time ;  even  master-thinkers  like  Hume  and  Condillac  were 
of  inferior  importance  to  Herder  and  Kant.  Germany's  hour 
had  come  at  last,  and,  at  the  end  of  the  century,  when  the 
French  Revolution  was  destroying  the  results  of  generations 
of  Latin  culture,  German  philosophy  and  German  literature 
held  the  leading  position  in  Europe.  In  the  fugue  of  the 
nations,  to  quote  Hettner's  application  of  Goethe's  suggest- 
ive metaphor,  England  had,  during  the  eighteenth  century, 
led  with  the  first  voice,  France  had  carried  on  the  second, 

nineteenth    an(*  to  Germany  had  fallen  the  last  and  most  resonant  of  all. 

century.  At    the    beginning    of    the    nineteenth    century,    German 


INTRODUCTION.  xxiil 

classical  literature  had  reached  its  zenith.  But  this  was  not 
all :  in  half-conscious  antagonism  to  the  reigning  classicism, 
the  Romantic  School  inaugurated  a  new  movement,  which 
left  traces  on  the  development  of  literature  almost  to  the 
close  of  the  century.  Germany,  however,  soon  ceased  to 
play  the  leading  role  in  European  literature ;  for  before 
Goethe's  death,  France  was,  once  again,  exerting  a  decisive 
influence  on  the  general  current  of  thought  and  letters, 
and  Byron  was  unquestionably  more  of  a  "  world  -  poet " 
than  any  of  his  German  contemporaries,  Goethe  excepted. 
The  "  Young  German "  epoch,  that  is  to  say,  the  epoch 
that  lay  between  the  Revolutions  of  1830  and  1848,  was 
characterised  by  subservience  to  France;  the  poets  of  the 
French  tcole  romantique  gave  such  ideas  as  they  borrowed 
from  Germany  a  cosmopolitan  stamp,  and  Hugo,  Musset 
and  Beranger  became,  like  Byron,  forces  in  German  litera- 
ture. Between  1840  and  1848,  the  Germans,  again  docilely 
following  France,  learned  to  express  their  enthusiasm  for 
freedom  in  political  lyrics ;  and  Balzac  and  George  Sand 
— like  Scott,  a  little  earlier — gave  Germany  examples  of  a 
fiction  which  satisfied  modern  needs  better  than  did  the 
novels  of  the  Romantic  School.  Except  at  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  Germany  passed  through 
no  literary  epoch  which  could  be  compared  with  that  of 
French  Romanticism  or  with  the  "  Bliitezeit "  of  English 
Victorian  literature.  In  great  measure  this  was  due  to 
political  causes,  to  a  want  of  national  unity;  for,  through- 
out the  century,  there  was  no  lack  of  writers  of  genius : 
a  nation  that  could  point  to  lyric  poets  like  Eichendorff, 
Heine,  Morike  and  Storm,  to  dramatists  such  as  Kleist, 
Grillparzer  and  Hebbel,  to  a  novelist  like  Gottfried  Keller, 
had  no  reason  to  take  a  subordinate  rank.  But,  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  eminent  writers  were  no  longer,  as 
in  the  cosmopolitan  age  of  German  classicism,  sufficient  to 
make  a  great  literary  period ;  there  was  also  necessary  a 
certain  political  concentration,  a  national  life  held  together 


XXIV 


INTRODUCTION. 


cal  distri- 
bution. 


by  common  aims,  and  this  was  wanting  in  modern  Ger- 
many. If  for  no  other  reason,  the  closing  period  of  our 
history,  in  which  Germany  appears  at  last  as  one  nation, 
has  a  peculiar  interest  for  the  student ;  for,  once  more, 
with  the  help  of  French,  Russian  and  Scandinavian  models, 
the  German  mind  has  asserted  itself  as  an  original  force 
among  the  literatures  of  Europe.1 

It  is  not  easy  to  express  in  a  few  words  the  peculiarities, 
the  national  characteristics,  of  this  literature,  whose  position 
in  relation  to  that  of  other  Western  nations  we  have 
attempted  to  define.  In  the  first  place,  German  literature 
is  more  composite  than  any  other  written  in  a  single  tongue. 
Geographi-  At  the  present  day,  it  embraces  the  imaginative  work  of 
one-third  of  the  population  of  the  European  continent ;  it  is 
the  literature,  not  only  of  the  German  Empire,  but  also  of 
the  eight  millions  who  speak  the  German  tongue  in  Austro- 
Hungary,2  and  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  Switzerland.3 
Moreover,  within  the  German  Empire  itself  there  exists  a 
diversity  of  peoples  and  national  temperaments — one  might 
almost  say  of  races — which  adds  considerably  to  the  difficulty 
of  definition.  The  literature  of  the  Baltic  coasts,  for  ex- 
ample, is  as  different  from  that  of  the  Bavarian  Highlands 
and  of  Austria  as  is  that  of  France  from  Italy ;  and  centres 
like  Berlin,  Munich  and  Vienna  display  wider  variations  in 
their  literary  tastes  than  are  to  be  found  throughout  the 
whole  English-speaking  world. 

In  spite  of  these  initial  difficulties,  however,  certain  broad 
and  general  features  may  be  distinguished,  which  are  to  be 
traced  throughout  the  entire  evolution  of  German  literature. 
The  question  is  most  conveniently  approached  comparatively, 

1  Cp.  R.  von  Gottschall,  Die  deutsche  Nationallitteratur  des  19.  Jahr- 
hunderts,  4  vols.,  yth  ed.,  Leipzig,  1900-02;  R.  M.  Meyer,  Die  deutsche 
Litteratur  des  19.  Jahrhunderts,  and  ed.,  Berlin,  1900,  and  the  same  author's 
Grundriss  der  neiiern  deutschen  Litteraturgesehichte,  Berlin,  1902. 

*  Cp.  J.  W.  Nagl  and  J.  Zeidler,  Deutsch-Osterreichische  Litteraturgesehichte, 
i,  Vienna,  1899. 

3  Cp.  J.  Baechtold,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  in  der  Schweix, 
Frauenfeld,  1887. 


General 
character- 
istics. 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV 

by  contrasting  German  letters  with  French.  The  literatures 
of  these  two  nations — which,  by  a  freak  of  history,  began 
their  political  development  together  under  the  sway  of  one 
king — form  the  most  striking  contrast  that  is  to  be  found 
within  the  Aryan  family.  According  to  the  testimony  of 
literary  history,  there  would  seem  to  be  stronger  bonds  of 
intellectual  sympathy  between  Germany  and  Spain  or  Italy, 
than  between  France  and  Germany;  while  French  art  and 
literature  have  always  been  more  warmly  appreciated  and 
more  successfully  imitated  by  the  Scandinavian  than  by  the 
German  peoples.  English  literature,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
the  result  of  too  complicated  an  evolution  to  form  as  sharp 
an  antithesis  to  either  French  or  German  literature  as  do 
these  two  to  each  other,  while  the  Slavonic  literatures  have, 
to  a  large  extent,  imitated  their  western  neighbours.  Thus, 
it  may  be  said  that,  as  far  as  Europe  is  concerned,  the  two 
poles  of  literary  expression  are  represented  by  France  and 
Germany ;  here  are  concentrated  the  fundamental  character- 
istics which  distinguish  what  Madame  de  Stael  called  "la 
litterature  du  nord"  from  "la  litterature  du  midi."1  The 
poetic  temperament  of  the  Teuton,  as  compared  with  the 
Latin,  is  displayed  in  its  naivest,  simplest  form  in  the  first 
of  the  two  "  cosmopolitan  "  epochs  of  European  literature,  in 
that  of  chivalry :  the  comparison  is,  moreover,  simplified  by 
the  fact  that  both  French  and  German  poets  treated  the 
same  themes,  and  had  the  same  artistic  ideals  before  them. 
The  supreme  qualities  of  the  French  romances  of  chivalry 
are  those  of  style :  even  if  a  French  epic  is,  as  a  whole, 
defective  in  proportion,  its  constituent  parts  are  rarely  without 
balance  and  proportion ;  practical  and  clear  -  minded,  the 
French  poet  deals  with  facts  and  concrete  ideas.  The 
German  poet  of  the  same  time  proved,  as  we  shall  see,  an 
apt  pupil  of  his  French  masters,  but  the  natural  bent  of  his 
mind  is  none  the  less  clearly  to  be  seen  beneath  the  veneer 

1  De  la  literature  considtrte  dans  ses  rapports  avec  les  institutions  sociales, 
Paris,  1800,  134. 


XXVI  INTRODUCTION. 

of  French  imitation ;  however  closely  he  may  translate  from 
the  French,  he  is  never  reluctant  to  enlarge  upon  his  original : 
not  content  to  describe  things  as  they  appear  to  the  outward 
eye,  he  reflects  upon  them,  interprets  them,  and  explains  them. 
In  spite  of  its  rougher  workmanship,  the  verse  of  Wolfram  von 
Eschenbach  or  Gottfried  von  Strassburg  consequently  strikes 
an  individual  note  which  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  French 
medieval  writers.  Thus,  too,  the  Germans  early  displayed 
their  supremacy  in  the  lyric;  deeply  as  they  had  been  in- 
fluenced by  the  Provencal  poets,  the  Minnesingers  put  into 
their  songs  a  subjectivity,  a  richness  of  sentimental  feeling, 
which  distinguishes  them  from  the  Troubadours. 

As  the  centuries  moved  on,  and  the  epic  developed  into 
the  novel,  the  Minnesang  into  the  modern  lyric,  and  the 
feeling  for  nature  awakened,  national  peculiarities  became 
more  emphasised.  The  relation,  for  instance,  in  which 
French  prose  fiction  stands  to  German  is  only  in  a  higher 
degree  that  in  which  Crestien  de  Troyes  stood  to  Wolfram 
von  Eschenbach.  The  German  novelist  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries  deals  with  feelings  and  thoughts 
rather  than  with  actions  and  events ;  his  aim,  to  which  all 
else  is  sacrificed,  is  to  follow  out,  in  all  its  details,  the 
growth  of  an  individual ;  and  his  pen  is  at  the  service  of 
subjective  and  personal  ideas  which  he  enforces  with  an  in- 
sistence that  often  outsteps  the  bounds  of  aesthetic  licence. 

Or  let  us  turn  to  the  drama,  and  especially  to  comedy, 
which,  in  French  literature,  occupies  a  similar  place  to  the 
lyric  in  German,  or  the  novel  in  English  literature.  As 
a  nation,  the  Germans  are  not  deficient  in  the  comic  spirit ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  are  highly  endowed  with  a  deep  and 
hearty  humour;  but  their  literature  is,  notwithstanding,  de- 
ficient in  good  comedies  of  the  highest  order.  This  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  comedy  depends  least  of  all  on  the  expression 
of  individual  feelings  and  convictions;  it  is,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, a  criticism  of  society.  The  representative  German 
comedies — Minna  von  Barnhelm  must  be  excluded,  as  being 


INTRODUCTION.  XXV11 

modelled  on  the  non-German  comedy  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, such  as  Grillparzer's  Weh  dem,  der  liigt>  or  Wagner's 
Meislersinger  von  Nilrnberg — are  never,  like  the  masterpieces 
of  French  or  English  comedy,  purely  objective ;  they  express 
an  individual  standpoint  which  makes  it  impossible  to  bring 
them  into  the  same  line  with  the  masterpieces  of  a  Moliere, 
Congreve  or  Goldoni. 

The  fundamental  differences  between  French  and  German 
literature  might  be  summed  up  by  saying  that  the  former  is 
the  supreme  example  of  a  social  literature,  while  the  latter  is  a 
literature  of  individualism.  The  unique  position  which  Paris 
has  always  held  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  French  nation 
has  determined  the  character  of  French  literature ;  the  literary 
spirit,  which  attains  its  highest  expression  in  the  criticism  of 
life,  is  essentially  metropolitan.  In  Germany,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  national  life  is  divided  over  many  capitals,  and 
the  nation's  thought  and  literature  centre  in  innumerable 
coteries.  The  German  writer  has  never  known  a  single 
tribunal  of  public  opinion  ;  he  has  thought  as  an  individual 
and  written  for  himself.  Hence  the  literature  he  has  pro- 
duced is  one  in  which  the  lyric,  the  most  personal  of  all 
forms  of  literature,  predominates,  and  where  the  epic  or 
novel  is  employed  to  express  purely  personal  feelings,  ideas 
and  desires.  Even  the  drama,  unless  in  a  modified  degree, 
in  Austria,  is  not  objective.  At  the  same  time,  German 
dramatists  are  not  exposed,  like  those  of  France,  Spain  or 
Italy,  to  the  temptation  of  repeating  themselves ;  and,  con- 
sequently, a  feature  of  the  German  drama  is  its  varied 
character.  Neither  Goethe  nor  Schiller,  Grillparzer  nor 
Hebbel,  has  written  two  plays  on  exactly  the  same  lines ;  the 
ability  to  make  the  same  mould  serve  again  and  again,  a 
talent  possessed  by  all  the  masters  of  the  Romance  drama, 
is  absent  in  German  literature,  or  is,  at  least,  restricted  to 
subordinate  talents  such  as  Hans  Sachs,  Weisse  or  Kotzebue. 
Thus,  in  spite  of  its  deficient  bulk,  the  dramatic  literature 
of  the  Germanic  races  is  rich  in  initiative  and  originality. 


XXVlii  INTRODUCTION. 

Such  being  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  German  litera- 
ture, as  they  appear  by  contrast  with  the  literatures  of  the 
Latin  peoples,  it  is  not  difficult  to  infer  what  part  the  former 
has  played  in  the  evolution  of  European  literature  as  a  whole. 
The  antithesis  of  Latin  and  Germanic,  South  and  North,  is, 
in  art  and  poetry,  expressed  by  the  words  "  classic "  and 
"  romantic " ;  the  Latin  literatures,  with  their  social  back- 
ground, are  the  representatives  of  rule  and  order,  of  classi- 
cism, while  the  Germanic  spirit  finds  its  most  perfect  ex- 
pression in  Romanticism.  For  the  Latin  nationalities,  the 
great  "  Bliitezeit "  was  the  classical  Renaissance,  or  a  direct 
consequence  of  the  Renaissance ;  in  the  north,  the  classical 
spirit — whether  in  the  Germany  of  Opitz  and  Gottsched,  in 
the  Sweden  of  the  eighteenth  century,  or,  although  naturally 
in  a  lesser  degree,  in  England  from  the  Restoration  onwards 
— has  invariably  been  a  foreign  growth  which  has  harmonised 
but  indifferently  with  the  national  temperament.  And,  in 
the  same  way,  Romanticism  has  been  equally  strange  on 
Latin  soil;  the  word  "romantique,"  it  is  true,  is  applied  to 
the  chief  French  movement  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but 
it  is  open  to  question  how  far  this  movement  represented 
an  encroachment  of  the  "  litteratures  du  nord,"  how  far  it 
was  merely  a  revival  of  the  spirit  that  animated  the  early 
Renaissance. 

German  literature  in  its  highest  national  development  has 
always  been  romantic — that  is  to  say,  individual,  spiritual, 
lyrical:  this  is  its  importance  and  this  explains  its  mission  in 
the  economy  of  European  letters.  And,  just  as  the  historian 
of  French  literature  must  keep  constantly  in  view  the  social 
background,  or  as  English  literary  history  must  take  account 
of  the  national  enterprise  and  independence  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  so  German  literature  must  be  regarded  pre- 
eminently as  the  literature  of  subjectivity  and  individualism. 


ERRATA. 


P. 
12 

53 

72 

244 

248 

271 

335 
489 


12  for  Isidor  read  Isidore. 

13  for  has  read  have. 

from  foot,y0r  1883  read  2nd  ed.,  1901. 
from  foot,  for  Maler  read  Mahlern. 
for  Mahler  read  Mahlern. 
y^r  1748  mzrf  1740. 


13     from  foot,  for  /«/se  read 


PART    I. 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD 


CHAPTER    I. 

EARLY    GERMANIC    CULTURE  ;     THE    MIGRATIONS. 

IN  the  growth  of  every  national  literature  there  is  a  period 
corresponding  to  what  the  ethnologist  describes  as  a  pre- 
historic age.  This  age  of  unwritten  literature  may,  as  in 
isolated  civilisations,  be  synonymous  with  the  age  of  unwritten 
history,  but  it  is  not  always  or  necessarily  the  case.  The 
modern  nations  of  Europe,  which  grew  up  under  the  shadow 
of  the  earlier  civilisations  of  Greece  and  Rome,  had  long 
emerged  from  prehistoric  obscurity  before  they  attained  that 
stage  of  culture  which  permitted  of  a  written  literature  :  when 
the  literary  "prehistoric"  period  of  modern  Europe  came  to 
a  close,  the  individual  nationalities  could  already  look  back 
upon  centuries  of  political  history.  Thus  the  first  seven 
centuries  of  the  history  of  England,  and  the  first  eight  cen- 
turies, at  least,  of  the  history  of  Germany,  are  absolutely 
without  literary  records.  There  is  no  literature  in  Germany 
before  the  age  of  Charles  the  Great. 

Of  the  successive  waves  of  immigration  on  which  the  TheGer- 
Aryans  spread  over  Europe,  that  which  bore  the  Germanic 
races  was  among  the  last.  Whence  the  Aryans  came  is  still 
a  matter  of  uncertainty ;  when  they  came  is  a  question  we 
can  never  hope  to  answer.  Of  the  earliest  history  of  the 
Germanic  peoples  all  that  can  be  said  with  certainty  is,  that 
at  the  time  Rome  was  beginning  to  assert  herself  in  Southern 
Europe  they  were  clustered  round  the  shores  of  the  North 
Sea  and  the  Baltic :  here,  as  early  as  the  fourth  century 
before  Christ,  an  adventurous  voyager  of  Marseilles,  Pytheas 
by  name,  discovered  them.1  In  this  dim  prehistoric  age  the 

1  Cp.  K.  MiillenhofT,  Deutsche  Altertumskunde,  i.  2nd  ed.,  Berlin,  1890, 
211  ff.  ;  and  W.  Scherer,  Vortrdge  und  Aufsdtze,  Berlin,  1874,  21  if. 


manic 
races. 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD  [PART  L 


The  First 
Sound- 
shifting. 


East  and 
West  Ger- 
mans. 


Julius 
Caesar,  55 
and  53  B.C. 


linguistic  change  known  as  the  "  First  Soundshifting  "  (Erste 
Laiitverschiebung),  by  which  the  consonantal  system  of  the 
Germanic  languages  was  sharply  differentiated  from  that  of 
the  Aryan  mother-tongue,  had  already  taken  place,  and  the 
accent  of  the  word,  originally  free,  as  in  Sanscrit  or  Greek, 
had  become  fixed  upon  the  stem.  The  latter  change  was 
essential  to  the  development  of  the  primitive  form  of  Ger- 
manic verse,  which,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  depended  on 
the  alliteration  of  accentuated  syllables. 

The  first  important  political  change  which  took  place  in  the 
group  of  peoples  on  the  Baltic  coast  was  probably  a  separa- 
tion of  the  East  Germans,  namely,  the  Goths,  and  the  races 
which  were  to  populate  Scandinavia,  from  the  others,  while 
these,  moving  slowly  westward,  were  subsequently  to  figure  in 
history  as  the  West  Germans.  This  West  Germanic  group 
of  nationalities  embraces  the  Frisians,  Anglo-Saxons,  Low 
Germans  (in  modern  times  represented  by  the  Dutch  and  the 
Plattdeutsch-speaking  peoples),  and  the  High  Germans.  The 
immigration  of  these  various  races  to  the  settlements  they 
finally  occupied  was  a  matter  of  centuries.  The  Germanic 
invasion  of  Scandinavia  began  some  centuries  before  the  birth 
of  Christ,  but  the  Goths  remained  on  the  Baltic  until  as  late 
as  the  end  of  the  second  century  of  our  era,  when  they, 
too,  were  seized  with  the  migratory  instinct.  They  aban- 
doned their  old  homes  and,  turning  southwards,  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  powerful  empire  on  the  lower  Danube.  The 
progress  of  the  West  Germanic  races  was  no  more  rapid. 
The  most  westerly  of  the  tribes  had  found  no  settled  home 
when  Caesar  came  into  conflict  with  them  in  the  first  century 
before  Christ,  and  they  were  still  in  little  better  than  a 
nomadic  condition  when  the  invasion  of  the  Huns  at  the 
end  of  the  fourth  century  threw  the  whole  Germanic  world 
into  confusion. 

Caesar  has  something  to  say  of  these  Germanic  barbarians, 
who,  for  more  than  half  a  century  before  his  time,  had  been 
a  source  of  vague  terror  to  the  Roman  world ;  but  his  ac- 
count J  is  meagre,  and  is  written  from  the  standpoint  of  a 
Roman  general,  who  regarded  it  as  presumptuous  for  a  bar- 
barian race  to  oppose  the  progress  of  Roman  conquest.  The 
most  detailed  description  of  the  Germans  with  whom  the 

*De  Bella  Gallico,  6,  21-29. 


CHAP.  I.]        THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  5 

Romans  came  into  contact  we  owe  to  Tacitus,  whose   Ger-  The  Ger- 
mania  was  written  towards  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  Tacitus° 
our    era.      Tacitus    seems    to    have    based    his    work    upon   A.D.  98. 
authentic  information,  but  there  is  something  of  the  special 
pleading    of   a    Rousseau    in    his    description    of  these   tall 
northern    races  with    their  fierce   blue    eyes    and    fair   hair : 
his   object  was  manifestly  to   bring   the  primitive   simplicity 
of   the    German    barbarians    into    sharp    contrast    with    the 
effeminate  luxury  of  Rome. 

It  is  improbable  that  the  art  of  writing  was  known  to  the 
Germans  whom  Tacitus  describes  :  their  Runic  alphabet,  a 
rough  imitation  of  some  of  the  Latin  letters,  was  not  in  gen- 
eral use  for  purposes  of  writing  until,  at  the  earliest,  the 
end  of  the  second  century.  But,  like  all  primitive  peoples, 
these  ancient  Germans  had  an  unwritten  poetry.  "  In  old  Unwritten 
songs,  their  only  history,"  says  Tacitus,  "  they  celebrate  a  Poetry- 
god  Tuisto,  born  of  the  earth,  and  his  son  Mannus  as  the 
ancestors  of  their  race"  ;  and,  in  the  Annals,  he  tells  us  that 
they  commemorated  in  song  the  deeds  of  their  national  hero 
Arminius.  Another  form  of  primitive  song  which  Tacitus 
mentions  is  the  barditus,  a  wild  battle-cry  or  hymn  sung 
with  the  shield  to  the  mouth  in  order  to  give  the  sound  addi- 
tional resonance.1  Further,  the  religious  hymn  and  heroic 
song  were  combined  with  dances  and  solemn  processions  to 
form  the  most  characteristic  of  all  the  "  literary "  forms  of 
the  ancient  Germans,  the  letch  (laikas),  and  from  the  letch 
to  the  beginnings  of  the  drama  was  not  more  than  a  step. 
Besides  hymns  and  war-songs,  the  Germans,  at  the  time  of 
which  Tacitus  writes,  must  have  possessed  the  spells  and 
magic  charms  which  are  characteristic  of  all  primitive  Aryan 
literatures.  They  had,  too,  their  hymns  for  the  dead,  and 
from  their  Aryan  home  they  undoubtedly  brought  with  them 
dim  nature-myths  of  the  victory  of  the  sun  over  darkness 
and  storm,  of  spring  over  winter,  the  tragedy  of  the  dying 
day  or  the  waning  summer — myths  which  at  a  later  date 
loomed  in  the  background  of  the  great  Germanic  sagas. 

It  is  to  the  Goths,  an  East  Germanic  people,  which,  as  we  The  Goths, 
have  seen,  had  settled  on  the  lower  Danube,  that  we  must 
look  for  the  first  awakening  of  intellectual  life.     Of  all  the 
Germanic  races  they  had  made  the  most  rapid  advances  in 

1  Tacitus,  German  fa,  2,  3 ;  Annals,  2,  88. 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 


Wulfila 
(an-S8* 

the  Gothi 
Bible. 


culture  and  civilisation,  a  fact  in  great  measure  due  to  their 
geographical  position,  which  brought  them  into  contact  with 
Greek  ideas  and  Christianity  at  a  date  when  their  kinsfolk 
in  the  north  were  still  heathens  and  barbarians.  The  foun- 
dations for  a  literature  in  the  Gothic  language  were  laid  by  a 
single  man,  the  Arian  bishop  Wulfila  or  Ulfilas  :  to  him  we 
or  owe  the  oldest  monument  of  Germanic  literature,  the  Gothic 
translation  of  the  Bible.  Wulfila,  whose  family  was  of 
Cappadocian  origin,  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  the  West  Goths 
or  Visigoths  in  341  at  the  age  of  thirty.  Seven  years  later, 
to  escape  the  persecution  which  his  missionary  work  brought 
upon  him,  he  led  his  people,  the  Goti  minores,  across  the 
Danube  into  Mcesia,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  modern 
Plevna.  He  died  at  Constantinople  either  in  the  winter  of 
380-81  or  in  383.  The  Emperor  Constantius  compared 
Wulfila  to  Moses  :  nowadays  we  should  rather  compare 
him  to  Luther.  But  even  Luther's  Bible  seems  a  small 
achievement  beside  the  herculean  work  of  this  Gothic 
bishop,  who  conceived  the  plan  of  translating  the  Bible 
into  the  vernacular  of  a  people  without  a  literature,  with- 
out even  a  written  alphabet.  Wulfila  had  first  to  invent 
the  very  letters  of  the  language  in  which  he  wrote  ;  he  had 
to  adapt  the  Greek  alphabet  to  Gothic  sounds,  supplementing 
its  deficiencies  from  the  Latin  alphabet  and  from  the  runes. 
He  probably  did  not  translate  more  than  the  New  Testament 
himself,  perhaps  only  the  four  Gospels  ;  and  the  translation 
of  the  Old  Testament  —  according  to  a  tradition,  only  the 
books  of  the  Kings  were  omitted  —  was  certainly  not  finished 
until  after  his  death,  but  the  entire  work  was  inspired  by 
him  and  rightly  bears  his  name.  Wulfila's  Bible  became  the 
accepted  canon  of  Gothic  Arianism,  and  continued  so  until 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century.  The  principal  MS.  is  the 
Upsala  Codex  argenteus,  a  beautiful  transcript  of  the  four 
Gospels,  written  in  silver  and  gold  upon  purple-stained  parch- 
ment. Of  the  original  330  pages,  however,  only  187  are 
preserved.  A  few  clumsily  translated  verses  from  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  is  all  that  remains  of  the  Old  Testament.1 

1  The  most  convenient  editions  of  the  Gothic  Bible  are  those  of  Stamm  and 
Heyne,  gth  ed.,  Paderborn,  1897,  and  of  E.  Bernhnrdt,  Halle,  1875  and  1884. 
On  Wulfila's  life,  cp.  G.  Kaufmann  in  Zeitschrift  f.  dcutsch.  Altertum,  27 
(1883),  193  ff.  ;  E.  Sievers  in  Paul's  Grundriss  tier  germanischen  Philologie,  2, 
i  (1889),  67  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]        THE   OLD   HIGH    GERMAN   PERIOD.  7 

Apart  from  the  linguistic  importance  of  the  Gothic  Bible,  it 
possesses  a  high  literary  value,  as  being  the  first  attempt  to 
express  in  a  Germanic  language  ideas  wholly  foreign  to  it. 
More  than  this,  Wulfila's  translation  shows  at  times  an  ap- 
preciation of  the  poetic  capabilities  of  the  Gothic  language, 
which  can  hardly  be  too  highly  estimated.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  Wulfila's  Gothic  possesses  a  literary  grace  and  style 
which  were  not  surpassed  in  any  Germanic  prose  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years  after  his  death. 

Hardly  any  other  specimens  of  the  Gothic  language  have  Other 
been  preserved.  The  fragment  of  a  Commentary — the  so- 
called  Skeireins — on  the  Gospel  of  St  John,  written  in  the 
sixth  century,  and  a  Calendar  are  the  most  important,  but 
they  possess  no  literary  interest.  Of  Gothic  poetry  there  is 
not  a  trace :  the  battle  hymns,  the  epic  lays  celebrating  the 
deeds  of  heroes  and  sung  by  minstrels  to  the  accompaniment 
of  the  cithara,1  have  entirely  disappeared,  but  it  is  improbable 
that  they  were  committed  to  writing  at  all.  In  the  fierce 
struggle  for  existence  in  which  they  soon  became  involved,  the 
Goths  lost  the  little  intellectual  prestige  they  had  gained. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century  the  Germanic  races  The  Mig- 
were  thrown  back  into  the  unsettled  life  from  which  they  had  ratlons> 
just  begun  to  emerge.     The  Huns,  a  barbarous  Mongolian  50i.   " 
race,  burst  into  Europe  from  the  east,  and  swept  all  before 
them.     The  Germanic  nationalities  either  succumbed  before, 
them  or,  joining  their  hordes,  were  swept  farther  westward. 
It  was  the  age  of  the  so-called  "  Volkerwanderung "  or  "Mig- 
rations."    The  beginnings  of  an  East  Gothic  or  Ostrogothic 
empire  in  the  south-east  of  Europe  were  destroyed,  the  Roman 
empire  itself  tottered  to  its  fall,  and,  when  quiescence  began 
to  return,  we  find  the  Ostrogoths  in  Italy,  a  Visigothic  kingdom 
in  Spain,  Vandals  in  the  north  of  Africa,  and  Germanic  races 
in  England.     But  the  Huns,  who  had  thus  changed  the  face 
of  Europe  as  it  has  never  been  changed  again,  had  disap- 
peared as  suddenly  and  mysteriously  as  they  had  come. 

Of  a  written  literature  in  such  an  age  there  could  be  no   Beginnings 
question,  but  the  struggles  of  the  Migrations  afforded  a  favour- 
able  soil  for  the  growth  of  the  epic.    The  famous  deeds  of  the  epic, 
national  heroes — of  Ermanarich,  of  Odoaker,  and,  above  all,  of 

1  Jordanes,   De  Origine  Actibusque  Getarum,  ed.  Mommsen,  Berlin,  1882, 
5>  43- 


8  THE  OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 

the  great  Theodorich,  who,  as  Dietrich  von  Bern  (i.e.,  Verona), 
is  a  central  figure  in  the  popular  German  literature  of  the 
entire  middle  ages — the  annihilation  of  the  Burgundians,  and 
the  fate  of  the  Hunnish  king  Attila,  were  the  materials  out  of 
which  the  German  people  welded  their  national  epic.  Little 
but  a  vague  tradition  of  the  primitive  religion  and  the  mythic 
heroes  survived  from  the  period  before  the  Migrations,  and 
that  little  was  soon  blended  in  the  popular  imagination  with 
the  great  events  of  the  more  immediate  past.  As  tranquillity 
returned,  the  Germanic  races  began  to  build  up  their  national 
life  afresh.  A  new  poetry  arose  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  cen- 
turies, dealing  with  the  men  and  events  uppermost  in  the 
nation's  mind. 

The  Nibe-  The  history  of  the  Burgundians  formed  a  middle  point  in 
batgatsaga.  the  development  of  the  national  epic.  This  was  a  West  Ger- 
manic  race  which  had  settled  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  in  the  valley  of  the  Rhine  ;  their  king,  Gunther,  reigned 
at  Worms.  The  richness  of  the  land  round  Worms  led  to 
the  Burgundians  being  connected  in  the  popular  imagination 
with  an  early  mythical  saga  of  a  treasure  that  lay  sunk  in  the 
Rhine.  This  treasure  or  "  hoard "  was  watched  over  by  the 
Nibelungs  or  children  of  mist  and  darkness,  from  whom  Sieg- 
fried, the  hero  of  light,  the  sun-god,  had  wrested  it.  But,  like 
the  day  before  the  night,  Siegfried  had  to  succumb  before  the 
powers  of  darkness  ;  and  the  Nibelung  Hagen,  at  whose  hands 
he  fell,  became  associated  in  the  later  development  of  the  saga 
with  the  Burgundian  kings.  A  terrible  fate,  however,  awaited 
the  Burgundian  people:  in  437  the  Huns  swept  down  upon 
them  and  annihilated  them  ;  Attila,  said  the  saga,  would  gain 
possession  of  the  Nibelungs'  hoard.  Deep  as  was  the  impression 
which  this  catastrophe  made  upon  the  Germanic  imagination, 
Attila's  own  end  impressed  it  even  more  deeply:  in  453  the 
king  of  the  Huns  was  found  dead  in  a  pool  of  blood  by  the 
side  of  his  newly  wedded  bride.  Before  long  the  popular 
mind  had  invested  this  incident  with  the  dignity  of  an  aveng- 
ing destiny.  It  made  out  Attila's  wife,  who  was  a  German, 
to  have  been  the  same  Grimhild  whom  Siegfried  married,  the 
sister  of  the  Nibelungs  whose  fate  was  identified  by  tradition 
with  that  of  the  Burgundians.  Thus  Grimhild  had  wrought 
"blood-vengeance"  upon  Attila  for  the  murder  of  her  kinsfolk. 
In  this  early  form,  more  myth  than  history,  the  Nibelungen- 


CHAP.  I.]        THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  9 

saga  spread  over  all  Germanic  lands,  becoming  in  Scandinavia 
the  basis  of  part  of  the  Eddal  In  the  lays  of  the  Edda,  the  The  Edda 
Siegfried  or  Sigurd  story  retains  more  of  the  primitive,  mythic  (ca-  ?5°- 
character  of  the  saga  than  in  the  later  German  versions.  The 
Scandinavian  Sigurd  is  of  the  mythical  race  of  the  Volsungs ; 
he  is  brought  up  by  a  dwarf  in  ignorance  of  his  parentage. 
He  kills  a  dragon,  wins  the  treasure  over  which  it  watches, 
and  wakens  the  sleeping  Valkyrie  Brynhild,  whom  Odin  has 
surrounded  with  a  ring  of  fire  upon  a  mountain  summit. 
Leaving  Brynhild,  Sigurd  comes  to  the  land  of  Gunnar  or 
Gunther,  where  he  is  given  a  magic  potion  which  destroys  his 
memory.  He  marries  Gunnar's  sister  Gudrun,  the  Grimhild 
of  the  German  saga,  and  aids  Gunnar  to  marry  Brynhild. 
When  the  latter  learns  the  deceit  that  has  been  practised 
upon  her,  that  not  her  husband  but  Sigurd  had  won  her  in 
Gunnar's  shape,  she  determines  to  take  vengeance.  She  in- 
cites Gunnar  against  Sigurd ;  Sigurd  is  murdered  and  Bryn- 
hild shares  his  lot  upon  the  funeral  pile.  To  Gudrun  it  now 
falls  to  marry  Atli,  the  king  of  the  Huns.  With  the  object 
of  obtaining  possession  of  the  hoard,  Atli  invites  Gudrun's 
kinsfolk  to  his  Court,  where  they  are  all  murdered,  without, 
however,  revealing  in  what  part  of  the  Rhine  they  have  sunk 
their  treasure.  With  the  terrible  revenge  which  Gudrun  takes 
upon  her  husband,  giving  him  the  blood  of  his  own  children 
to  drink  and  stabbing  him  in  his  bed,  the  Nibelungensaga, 
as  it  is  told  in  the  Edda,  closes.  These  lays  originated  in 
Scandinavia,  and  more  particularly  in  Iceland,  between  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  and  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  centuries, 
but  in  Germany  it  was  the  twelfth  century  before  the  story  of 
the  Nibelungs  crystallised  into  final  literary  form  as  the  Nibe- 
Inngenlied. 

1  Editions  of  the  Edda  by  F.  Jonsson,  Halle,  1888-90,  and  P..  Sijmons,  i, 
Halle,  1888 ;  also  in  G.  Vigfusson  and  F.  J.  Powell,  Corpus  I'oeticum  Borcale, 
i,  Oxford,  1883. 


10 


CHAPTER    II. 


CHRISTIANITY. 


LITERARY    BEGINNINGS    UNDER    CHARLES 
THE    GREAT. 


The  High 
German 
Sound- 
shifting. 


THE  political  history  of  the  West  Germanic  races  on  the  Con- 
tinent, in  the  centuries  immediately  succeeding  the  Migrations, 
is  summed  up  in  the  growing  preponderance  of  the  Franks. 
Although  the  Ostrogothic  empire  in  Italy  promised  for  a 
brief  period  under  Theodorich  the  Great  to  revive  the  glory 
of  the  old  Roman  empire,  it  had  ultimately  to  yield  to  the 
Franks  under  their  Merovingian  kings.  In  the  reign  of 
Chlodwig  (481-511)  the  Prankish  kingdom  was  greatly 
extended,  and  towards  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  it 
embraced  not  merely  the  Romanised  peoples  of  Gaul,  but 
all  the  West  Germanic  races  on  the  Continent  except  the 
Saxons  and  the  Frisians. 

Between  the  fifth  and  seventh  centuries  another  great  con- 
sonantal change  came  over  a  group  of  the  West  Germanic 
dialects.  This  was  the  "  Second  "  or  "  High  German  Sound- 
shifting,"  virtually  a  repetition  of  the  first  process  by  which, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  Germanic  languages  had  been  differenti- 
ated from  the  primitive  Aryan  language.  The  Second  Sound- 
shifting  affected  the  dialects  of  Bavaria  and  Alemannia  in 
their  entirety,  as  well  as  a  part  of  the  Prankish  dialect — namely, 
the  East,  Rhine  and  Middle  Frankish.1  These  dialects,  which 
were  ultimately  to  form  the  literary  language  of  Germany,  are 

1  The  chief  feature  in  the  Second  Sound-shifting  is  the  conversion  of  the 
tenues(/,/,  k)  into  the  corresponding  affricates  and  spirants  (s,  s ;  f/,/;  A,  cA); 
this  is  characteristic  of  all  High  German  dialects,  while  the  shifting  of  the 
medice  (d,  b,g)  to  the  corresponding  tenues  was  mainly  limited  to  the  Upper 
German  dialects  of  Bavaria  and  Alemannia.  The  Germanic  spirants  (lh,f,  ch) 
— with  the  possible  exception  of  th,  which  appears  in  High  German  as  d — were 
not  affected  by  the  High  German  Sound-shifting. 


CHAP.  II.]       THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD.  1 1 

henceforth  distinguished  as  High  German,  while  the  dialects 
of  North  Germany  and  Holland  are  known  as  Low  German. 

In  the  history  of  German  culture,  the  Merovingian  period  The  Mer- 
(ca.  480-750)  is  marked  by  the  infiltration  of  Roman  civilisa-  ?^ng^s 
tion  and  Roman  ideas.  But  susceptible  as  the  Merovingian  75o). 
Franks  were  to  Roman  influence,  they  did  not  allow  them- 
selves to  become  Latinised ;  they  retained  their  Germanic 
character.  Latin,  however,  was  the  language  of  the  State  as 
it  was  of  the  Church,  and  even  the  beginnings  may  be  traced 
of  a  literature  in  Latin.  This  general  adoption  of  the  Latin 
language  had  one  great  advantage  :  it  brought  the  Franks  into 
touch  with  the  outer  world ;  above  all,  it  paved  the  way  for 
Christianity.  Missionaries  had  found  their  way  into  Alemannia  Chris- 
as  early  as  the  sixth  century,  but  it  was  a  hundred  years  later  tiamty- 
before  Christianity  began  to  take  root.  Under  Chlotar  II., 
in  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century,  Columbanus  and 
Gallus  came  over  from  Ireland — the  land  of  light  in  those 
dark  ages  —  and  fought  a  hard  battle  for  the  faith  in 
Alemannia ;  and,  at  a  somewhat  later  date,  Christianity  began 
to  make  converts  in  Bavaria.  The  new  religion  widened  the 
imagination  of  the  people  and  enriched  their  vocabulary  with 
new  expressions,  but  at  the  same  time  it  discountenanced  the 
old  ballads  and  sagas,  which  savoured  too  much  of  heathenism. 
It  is  questionable,  however,  if  the  Church  did  more  than  re- 
tard by  a  few  generations  the  growth  of  a  secular  literature. 
For  the  sagas  were  kept  alive  in  the  songs  of  the  people,  and 
remained  unaffected  by  the  decrees  of  ecclesiastical  authorities. 
Their  later  development  shows  how  vital  the  tradition  must 
have  been. 

At  first  the  Church  made  attempts  to  replace  the  vernacular 
by  Latin,  but  it  was  only  at  first.  It  soon  became  clear  that, 
if  the  hearts  of  the  people  were  to  be  reached  at  all,  it  would 
need  to  be  through  their  native  tongue.  A  decree  by  the 
great  "Apostle  of  the  Germans,"  the  Anglo-Saxon  Winfrith 
or  Bonifacius  (ca.  680-755),  issued  in  748,  expressly  enjoined  Bonifacius 
that  "every  priest  shall  require  from  persons  about  to  be  (C^-6S< 
baptised,  a  clear  statement  in  their  mother-tongue  of  the 
Confession  of  Faith  and  the  Renunciation  of  the  Devil,"  and 
the  translation  of  important  parts  of  the  Church  ordinances 
was  frequently  insisted  upon  in  later  statutes.  It  is  thus 
natural  that  the  earliest  connected  records  of  the  German 


12 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 


Old  High 

German 

glosses. 


The  Merse- 
burger 
7,a  tiber - 
spriiche. 


Charles 
the  Great 
(742-814). 


language  should  have  been  translations  of  the  Liturgy;  at 
the  same  time,  none  of  those  which  have  come  down  to  us 
can  with  certainty  be  traced  back  beyond  the  age  of  Charles 
the  Great.  The  need  of  bridging  over  the  gulf  that  separated 
Latin  from  the  language  of  the  people  gave  rise  at  an  earlier 
date  to  German  glosses,  as  an  aid  to  the  translation  of  Latin 
manuscripts.  By  far  the  oldest  of  these  are  the  so-called 
Malbergischen  Glossen  to  the  Lex  salica,  in  Low  Prankish  of 
the  sixth  century.  The  two  most  important  collections  are, 
however,  the  so-called  Keronische  Glossar  to  a  Latin  dictionary, 
and  the  Vocabularius  Sancti  Galli,  which  contains  glosses  to 
Isidor,  Aldhelm,  and  other  writers.  Both  belong  to  the 
earlier  half  of  the  eighth  century,  and  were  probably  origi- 
nally Bavarian ;  the  Keronian  Glossary  served,  however,  as  a 
basis  for  a  number  of  later  glossaries  in  other  dialects  (Pariser 
Glossen,  Reichenauer  Glossen,  Hrabanische  Glosseti).1 

More  important,  from  a  literary  point  of  view,  are  the  two 
so-called  Merseburger  Zauber spriiche?  perhaps  the  only  wholly 
pre-Christian  verses  in  the  German  language.  The  first  of 
these  "charms" — they  are  in  rude  alliterative  verse — gives 
us  a  glimpse  of  the  old  German  "Idisi,"  the  "Valkyries"  of 
the  Scandinavians,  who  watch  over  the  fortunes  of  war ;  the 
second  is  a  charm  by  which  Wodan  cures  Balder's  horse  of 
lameness.  But  the  MS.  of  the  Merseburg  Charms  dates  only 
from  the  tenth  century. 

In  Charles  the  Great  the  best  traditions  of  the  Roman 
emperors  were  revived.  A  warrior  and  a  born  leader  of  men, 
a  great  lawgiver  and  a  far-seeing  patron  of  the  spiritual  and 
intellectual  advancement  of  his  people,  Charles  gathered  up 
in  himself  all  that  was  best  in  his  predecessors,  and  made  a 
magnificent  reality  out  of  what  to  them  had  been  only  an 
impracticable  ideal.  And  the  seat  of  his  revival  of  Caesarian 
empire  was  neither  Byzantium  nor  Rome :  it  was  amongst  rude 
barbarians  whom  the  Romans  had  despised,  but  barbarians 
in  whose  hands  lay  the  future  of  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Although  long  before  Charles  the  Great's  time  Rome  had 
ceased  to  be  the  unique  political  capital  of  the  world,  it 

1  E.  Steinmeyer  and  E.   Sievers,  Die  althochdeutschen   Glossen,  i  (Berlin, 
1879)  and  3  (1895),  i  ff.     Cp.  R.  Koegel,  Geschichle  der  dentschen  Litteratur, 
i,  2,  Strassburg,  1897.  426  ff. 

2  K.  Miillcnhoff  and  W.  Scherer,  Dcnkmaler  dentscher  Poesie  tind  Frosa  aus 
dem  8.-I2.  Juhrhundert.     3rd  ed.,  Berlin,  1892,  i,  15  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]       THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  13 

still  controlled  the  world's  destinies,  and  the  coronation  of 
Charles  in  768  virtually  meant  the  restoration  of  Rome  to  her 
old  supremacy.  Under  the  protection  of  this  new  empire  in 
the  West,  the  breach  between  Rome  and  Byzantium  became 
complete :  the  capital  of  the  Christian  faith  shook  itself  free 
from  the  city  of  Constantine.  Before  the  new  Rome  lay  a 
vista  of  spiritual  dominion  compared  with  which  the  territorial 
magnitude  of  the  old  Roman  empire  seemed  small. 

Charles  the  Great  remained  all  his  life  a  faithful  son  and 
servant  of  the  Church,  and  his  earliest  cares,  when  he  came 
to  the  throne,  were  devoted  to  religion.  The  hold  which 
Christianity  had  had  upon  the  people  under  the  Merovingian 
dynasty  was  still  slight,  and  missionary  work  lacked  discipline 
and  organisation.  Charles,  fully  aware  of  the  weak  points, 
proceeded  at  once  to  reinforce  the  existing  ecclesiastical  legis- 
lation by  new  ordinances.  He  heartily  endorsed  the  principle 
upon  which  Bonifacius  had  insisted,  namely,  that  religious 
ceremonies,  the  understanding  of  which  was  of  importance 
to  the  laity,  should  be  conducted  in  the  vernacular,  and  Transla- 
several  small  literary  fragments  from  the  close  of  the  eighth  L°tySrofthe 
century  and  beginning  of  the  ninth — baptismal  vows,  frag-  Catechism, 
ments  of  prayers,  paternosters,  credos,  for  the  most  part  in  &c- 
High  German  dialects l  —  were  directly  due  to  Charles's 
recommendations  and  legislation.  The  chief  specimen  of 
this  group  is  the  Weissenburger  Katechismus,  which  consists 
mainly  of  translations  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  with  commentary, 
of  the  Apostolic  and  Athanasian  Creeds,  and  of  the  Gloria 
in  excelsis.  It  is  written  in  the  same  Rhine-Frankish  dialect 
in  which  Otfrid  wrote  his  Gospel  Book  a  generation  later. 

Intimately  bound  up  with  Charles  the  Great's  ecclesiastical  Scholastic 
reforms  were  his  far-reaching  schemes  for  the  advancement  of  actmty- 
learning.     With  the  aid  of  the  great  Alcuin  (ca.  735-804)  he 
established  a  kind  of  university  at  his  Court,  and  brought  the 
highest  learning  of  the  time  within  the  reach  of  his  subjects. 
He  inspired  the  clergy  with  the  zeal  for  earnest  scholarship 
which   had   been   hithert6   unknown  in  the  German   monas- 
teries.    The  fruits  of  this  scholastic  activity,  so  far  as  they 
were  expressed  in  German,  have  mainly  a  linguistic  interest. 
The  most  important  is  a  lengthy  fragment  of  an   excellent 

i  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,   198-209;    P.   Piper,  Die  dlteste  deutsche 
Litteratur  (D.N.L.,  i  [1885]),  81  ff. 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 


The  Mon- 
seer  Frag- 
mente. 


The  Wes- 
sobrunner 
Gebet,  ca. 
780. 


translation  into  Rhine-Frankish  of  the  tract  De  fide  catholica 
contra  Judtcos  by  Isidorus.  The  same  translation  is  also  to  be 
found  in  part  in  another  codex,  the  Monseer  fragmentet  so- 
called  from  the  monastery  of  Monsee  in  Upper  Austria,  where 
the  copy  was  made.  Besides  the  tract  by  Isidorus,  the  Monsee 
codex  contains  a  fragment  of  the  Gospel  of  St  Matthew,  a 
sermon,  De  vocatione  gentium,  on  the  text  that  God  may  be 
prayed  to  in  all  languages,  and  the  seventy-sixth  Sermon  of 
St  Augustine,  all  in  the  same  Rhine-Frankish  dialect.1  These 
translations,  although  they  date  from  the  earliest  years  of 
Charles  the  Great's  reign,  are  the  best  specimens  of  Old  High 
German  prose  from  the  Carlovingian  period.  To  find  a  writer 
worthy  of  being  placed  beside  the  translator  of  the  Monsee 
Fragments — it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  there  was  more  than 
one  hand  engaged  in  the  work — we  have  to  turn  to  the  St  Gall 
monk  Notker,  more  than  two  hundred  years  later.  In  this 
group  of  scholastic  literature  may  also  be  included  several 
interlinear  versions  of  Latin  works,  such  as  the  twenty-six 
Murbacher  Hymnen,  a  Tegernsee  Carmen  ad  Deum,  and  frag- 
ments of  various  Psalms.  The  Benedictine  Rule  (Bencdik- 
tinerregel}  was  also  glossed  at  St  Gall  between  800  and  8o4.2 
Having  once  admitted  the  vernacular  into  its  liturgy,  the 
Church  began  to  interest  itself  in  popular  verse.  Latin 
ecclesiastical  poetry  was  gradually  degenerating  into  a  mere 
jingle  of  words,  and  it  was  only  a  question  of  time  for  a 
poetry  in  German  to  take  its  place.  The  earliest  example 
of  an  interest  in  such  poetry  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  is  the 
Wessobrunner  Gebet  from  a  MS.  which  formerly  belonged  to 
the  monastery  of  Wessobrunn  in  Bavaria.  On  the  last  two 
pages  of  this  MS.,  which  contains  a  strange  medley  of  monas- 
tic lore  in  Latin,  are  to  be  found  under  the  heading  De  poeta 
some  twenty-one  lines  of  German.  The  fragment  begins  with 
the  following  nine  lines  of  alliterative  verse  : — 

"  Dat  gafregin  ih  mil  firahim      firiuuizzo  meista, 
Dat  ero  ni  uuas     noh  ufhimil, 
noh  paum  noh  pereg  ni  uuas, 
ni  .  .  .  nohheinig      noh  sunna  ni  scein, 


1  G.  A.  Hench,  The  Monsee  Fragments,  Strassburg,  1890  ;  also  by  the  same 
editor,  Dcr  althochdeutsche  Isidor  \Quellen  und  Forschungen,  72),  Strassburg, 
1893.  Cp.  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  93  ff. 

a  Cp.  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  105  ff.,  and  Nachtrdge  (D.N.L.,  162  [1898]),  22  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]       THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.         ,         15 

noh  inano  ni  liuhta,       noh  der  marco  seo. 

Do  dar  niuuiht  ni  uuas      cnteo  ni  uuenteo, 

cnti  do  uuas  der  eino      almahtico  cot, 

manno  miltisto,      enti  dar  uuarun  auh  manakc  mil  inan 

cootlihhe  geista.         cnti  cot  heilac."  .  .  .* 

Here  the  verses  break  off  abruptly,  and  are  followed  by  the 
fragment  of  a  prayer  in  prose.  There  is  not,  as  was  formerly 
believed,  anything  pre-Christian  in  the  ideas  expressed  in  these 
lines ;  their  theme  is  obviously  the  beginning  of  the  first 
chapter  of  Genesis,  with  possibly  a  reminiscence  of  the  second 
verse  of  the  ninetieth  Psalm.  But  they  retain  something  of 
the  epic  grandeur  and  reverential  awe  of  the  early  Germanic 
imagination  :  the  heathen  spirit  is  there,  although  disguised  in 
the  garb  of  the  new  faith.  The  dialect  of  the  poem  is  Bavarian, 
but  such  forms  as  dat  and  gafregin  point  to  a  Saxon  original. 
This  original  was  probably  written  from  memory  by  a  Bavarian 
monk.  The  MS.  dates  from  the  end  of  the  eighth  century, 
but  the  original  may  have  been  considerably  older. 

From  a  poetic  beginning  like  the    Wessobrunn  Prayer  to 
verses  on  secular  themes  was  only  a  step.     As  early  as  789  a 
capitular  was  issued  forbidding  nuns  "to  write  or  send  wini- 
leodos"  and  with  these  winileodos  may  possibly  be  identified  The 
the  beginnings   of   German    love   poetry :    in   any  case,   the    Wmileod' 
winileod  was  a  secular  popular  song  as  opposed  to   the   re- 
ligious poetry  of  the  Church.     With  the  exception,  however, 
of  a  half  Latin  fragment  of  the  eleventh  century  2  and  the 
so-called  Liebesgruss  in  the  Latin  epic  Ruodlieb,  no  lyrics  have 
been  preserved  from  the  Old  High  German  period. 

Although  insisting  upon  the  strictest  discipline  within  the 
monasteries,  Charles  the  Great  was  not  intolerant  of  the 
secular  element  in  the  germinating  literature  of  his  reign. 
Indeed,  so  far  from  showing  intolerance,  he  was  fully  aware 
that  the  preservation  of  his  own  memory  lay  in  the  hands  of 
the  popular  singers  :  he  accordingly  commanded  that  the 

1  "  Das  erfuhr  ich  unter  (den)  .Menschen  (als  der)  Wunder  grosstes,  dass 
(die)  Erde  nicht  war  noch  (der)  Uberhimmel,  noch  Baum  noch  Berg  [nicht] 
var,  nicht  .  .  .  kein  .  .  .  noch  (die)  Sonne  schien,  noch  (der)  Mond  leuch- 
tete,  noch  die  herrliche  See.     Als  da  nichts  war  (von)  Enden  noch  Wenden 
(i.e.,  Grenzen),  [und]  da  war  der  eine  allmachtige  Gott,'(der)  Manner  mildcster 
und  da  waren  auch  mil  ihm  manche  gute  Geister.     Und  Gott  heilig.  .  .  ." 
The  text  is  that  of  W.  Braune,  Althochdeutsches  Lesetuch,  4th  ed.,  Halle,  1897. 
Cp.  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  i  f.  ;  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  139  ff. 

2  The  so-called  Kleriker  und  Nonne.     Cp.  R.  Koegel,  I.e.,  i.  2,  136  ff. 


16  THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 

songs  of  the  people  should  be  collected  and  preserved.1 
This  collection  is  lost,  but  a  fragment  of  an  alliterative 
The  mide-  "  Heldenlied,"  preserved  in  a  copy  made  by  two  monks 
of  the  monastery  of  Fulda  about  800,  affords  an  idea  of 
the  kind  of  poetry  which  Charles's  collection  would  have 
contained.  This  is  the  Hildebrandslied,  the  lay  of  Hilde- 
brand  and  Hadubrand.2 

"  Ik  gihorta  "  (so  begins  the  poem)  "  Sat  seggen, 
Sat  sih  urhettun      aenon  muotin, 
Hiltibrant  enti  HaSubrant      untar  heriun  tuem." 

The  old  Hildebrand  and  the  youthful  Hadubrand  stand 
opposed  to  each  other  in  the  course  of  battle.  The  old 
man  asks  his  opponent  his  father's  name.  "  My  father," 
replies  Hadubrand,  "was  Hildebrand,  my  name  is  Hadu- 
brand." A  faithful  vassal  of  Theodorich,  Hildebrand  had  fled 
with  him  from  the  wrath  of  Odoaker  and  found  refuge  with 
the  Huns.  The  old  warrior  is  now  on  his  way  back  to  the 
home  where  he  had  left  wife  and  child  thirty  years  before. 
He  doubts  no  longer  that  it  is  his  own  son  who  stands  before 
him,  and  joyfully  offers  him  the  arm-rings  which  he  has 
received  as  gifts  from  the  great  Attila.  But  Hadubrand,  with 
the  impetuosity  of  youth,  only  sees  in  the  old  man's  story  an 
excuse  to  avoid  a  conflict : — 

"  Hadubrant  gimahalta,      Hiltibrantes  sunu  : 
'  mil  gem  seal  man      geba  infahan, 
ort  widar  orte.  .  .  . 
dd  bist  dir,  alter  Hun,  ummet  spaher, 

spenis  mih  mit  dinem  wortun,      wili  mih  dinu  speru  werpan. 
pist  also  gialtet  man,      s6  du  ewin  inwit  fuortos. 
dat  sagetun  ml      seolidante 
westar  ubar  wentilseo,      dat  inan  wic  furnam  : 
t6t  ist  Hiltibrant,      Heribrantes  suno.'" 

The  conflict  between  father  and  son  is  unavoidable : — 

"  Welaga  nu,  waltant  got "  (cries  Hildebrand),      "  wewurt  skihit. 
ih  wallota  sumaro  enti  wintro      sehstic  ur  lante, 
dar  man  mih  eo  scerita      in  folc  sceotantero  : 


1  Einhard,  Vita  Caroli  Magni  (ed.  P.  Jaffe',  Berlin,  1876),  cap.  29. 

2  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  2  ff. ;  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  142  ff.     The  dialectic 
peculiarities  of  the  text  are  explained  on  the  assumption  that   the   original 
was  Low  German  and  written  from  memory  by  a  High  German ;  the  Fulda 
monks  (East  Frankish  dialect)  then  copied  this  High  German  version.     The 
fragment  consists  of  sixty-eight  lines. 


CHAP,  II.]       THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD.  I? 

s6  man  mir  at  burc  enigeru      banun  ni  gifasta, 

nu  seal  mih  suasat  chind      suertu  hauwan, 

breton  mit  sinu  billiu,      eddo  ih  imo  ti  banin  werdan."  1 

The  fight  begins,  but  the  MS.  breaks  off  and  leaves  us  in  ignor- 
ance as  to  how  it  ends.     There  is,  however,  little  doubt  that 
the  close  was  tragic ;  the  youthful  warrior  falls  by  his  father's    ^ 
hand,  like  Sohrab  by  Rustem's  in  the  similar  Persian  saga. 

Like  the  Scandinavian  Edda  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  epic 
Beowulf,  the  Hildebrandslied  is  composed  in  alliterative  verse.  Alliterative 
In  this,  the  oldest  metrical  system  of  Germanic  poetry,  the  line  verse> 
is  divided  rhythmically  into  two  halves.  These  two  half-lines 
are  connected  by  alliteration, — that  is  to  say,  the  syllables 
upon  which  most  stress  is  laid  in  reading  or  singing  the  lines 
begin  with  the  same  letter  or  sound.  Each  line  has  usually 
three  such  alliterating  syllables,  two  in  the  first  half  and  one 
in  the  second,  but  there  may  be  only  two.  All  initial  vowels 
alliterate  indifferently  with  one  another,  and  consonantal  com- 
binations such  as  sc,  sp,  and  st,  are  regarded  as  single  sounds. 

The  Hildebrandslied  is  an  example  of  the  rough,  uncouth 
ballad  out  of  which  the  German  national  epic  was,  at  a  much 
later  date,  to  be  constructed.  There  is  no  Homeric  breadth 
here,  there  are  no  literary  graces ;  in  place  of  them  we  find 
a  directness  of  speech,  a  fierce  dramatic  intensity  and  a  grim 
irony,  which  are  to  be  sought  for  in  vain  in  less  primitive 
literature.  But  the  Hildebrandslied  stands  alone ;  the  frag- 
mentary Anglo-Saxon  Waldere,  which  is  evidently  a  translation 
of  an  Old  High  German  lay,  is  the  only  other  evidence  we 
possess  of  a  national  epic  in  the  Carlovingian  age. 

1  "  Ich  horte  das  sagen,  dass  sich  (als)  Kampfer  allein  begegneten  Hilde- 
brand  und  Hadubrand  zwischen  Heeren  zwei"  (11.  1-3).  "  Hadubrand  sprach, 
Hildebrands  Sohu  :  Mit  Gere  soil  man  Gabe  empfangen,  Spitze  wider  Spitze. 
Du  bist  [dir],  alter  Hunne,  unmassig  schlau.  .  .  .  Lockst  mich  mit  deinen 
Worten,  willst  mich  mit  deinem  Speere  werfen,  bist  so  (ein)  alt  gewordener 
Mann,  so  du  ewigen  Betrug  (im  Schilde)  fuhrtest.  Das  sagten  mir  Seeleute, 
die  westwarts  iiber  das  Meer  (die  Wendelsee)  kamen,  dass  ihn  der  Kampf 
hinraffte :  tot  ist  Hildebrand,  Heribrands  Sohn"  (11.  36-44).  "  Wolan  nun, 
waltender  Gott,  Wehgeschick  geschieht.  Ich  wallte  (der)  Sommer  und  Winter 
(i.e.,  der  Halbjahre)  sechzig  ausser  Landes,  wo  man  mich  immerauslas  in  (das) 
Volk  (der)  Krieger,  ohne  dass  man  mir  bei  irgend  einer  Burg  den  Tod  [nicht] 
gab:  nun  soil  mich  (mein)  liebes  Kind  (mit  dem)  Schwerte  hauen,  (mich) 
niederstrecken  mit  seiner  Streitaxt,  oder  ich  ihm  zum  Tode  werden  "  (11.  49-54). 


18 


CHAPTER    III. 

CHARLES    THE    GREAT'S    SUCCESSORS.       HIULICAL    POETRY. 

IT  was  hardly  to  be  expected  that  Charles  the  Great  should 
have  had  a  successor  of  such  character  and  intellectual  breadth 
as  himself.     At  his  death  in  814,  the  responsibilities  of  the 
Ludwig        empire  fell  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  son,  Ludwig  the  Pious. 
sT  s'o"8'     Earnest  and  clear-headed  as  Ludwig  was,  he  had  but  little  of 
his  father's  kingly  genius ;  he  was  essentially  a  man  of  peace 
and  a  Churchman.    The  strong  religious  bent  of  his  mind  was 
not,  however,  detrimental  to  the  best  interests  of  literature. 
He  may  have  subordinated  the  intellectual  life  of  his  time 
to  the  Church,  in  a  manner  which  his  father  would  not  have 
countenanced,  but  in  the  ninth  century,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered,  there  was  still  no  hope  of  a  literature  outside  the 
Church.     An  important  event  of  Ludwig's  reign  was  the  rise 
of  the  monasteries,  among  which  that  of  Fulda  soon  took  up  a 
leading  position.     Fulda  became  the  Tours  of  the  North,  and 
the  greatest  men  of  the  age  flocked  to  it,  to  sit  at  the  feet 
of  Alcuin's    most    distinguished    scholar,    Rabanus    Maurus. 
The   ideas   of  education  which   Rabanus  Maurus   put    into 
practice  were  broad  and  liberal ;  he  was  faithful  to  the  best 
traditions  of  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Great,  and,  himself  a 
poet,  he  showed  no  clerical  contempt  for  the  language  of 
the  people.     To  his  direct  instigation  is  probably  to  be  traced 
The  Evan-  an  East-Frankish  translation,  made  at  Fulda,  of  the  Evangelien- 
moni^Qi      harmonic  of  Tatian,  or  rather,  of  a  Latin  Gospel  Harmony 
Tatian,         compiled  according  to  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian.1    This  trans- 
ca-  83S-        lation,  which  dates  from  the  fourth  decade  of  the  ninth  cen- 

1  Ed.  E.  Sievers,  2nd  ed.,  Paderborn,  1892.    Cp.  P.  Piper  in  D.N.L.,  i,  120- 
"5- 


CHAP.  III.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  19 

tury,  cannot,  however,  be  compared,  for  accuracy  or  literary 
qualities,  with  the  translations  of  the  Monsee  codex. 

The  eyes  of  the  clergy  were  gradually  opening  to  the  power 
which  a  literature  in  the  popular  tongue  might  exert  in  the 
service  of  the  Church,  and  it  would  have  been  surprising 
had  they  not  soon  employed  their  literary  activity  in  something 
more  than  glossing  and  translating.  In  point  of  fact,  the  ninth 
century — the  brightest  in  the  Old  High  German  period — 
stands  out  as  the  age  of  the  two  earliest  Christian  epics  in  a 
European  vernacular,  the  Old  Saxon  Heliand,  and  the  Evan- 
gelienbuch  of  Otfrid,  the  latter  the  earliest  German  poem  in 
rhymed  verse. 

In  1562  Mathias  Vlacich,  or  Flacius,  a  zealous  Protestant 
theologian,  intent  on  proving  that  the  ideas  of  the  Reforma- 
tion were  not  new,  unearthed,  it  is  not  known  where,  a  Pr&fatio 
in  librum  antiquum  lingua  saxonica  conscriptum,  together  with 
some  Latin  verses  concerning  the  same  "  ancient  book  in  the 
Saxon  tongue."  According  to  this  Prcefatio^  Ludwig  the 
Pious  commissioned  a  Saxon  who  possessed  a  certain  reputa- 
tion as  a  poet,  to  translate  the  Bible  into  German  verse.  The 
Latin  verses,  which  are  evidently  of  later  date,  only  repeat  the 
story  which  Bede  relates  of  Caedmon  :  a  peasant  watching  his 
flocks  falls  asleep  under  a  tree,  and  is  commanded  by  a  voice 
from  heaven  to  interpret  the  Word  of  God  in  his  own  tongue. 
However  apocryphal  these  verses  may  be,  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  the  epic  poem  of  all  but  6000  verses  which  its 
first  editor  entitled  Der  Heliand  ("The  Saviour"),  and  the  The  Old 
recently  discovered  fragments  of  Genesis,  are  portions  of  the  Saxon  He- 

.-.  ,  „  .  .  .,-..,  ,  •    ,    •         F  •       /»<*««  and 

Old  Saxon  poetic  version  of  the  Bible,  which  is  referred  to  in   Genesis, 
the  Prcefatio}-  ca-  83o- 

Concerning  the  author  of  this  Biblical  poem  or  the  locality 
where  it  was  written,  we  have  no  definite  information.  A 
generally  accepted  view  is  that  it  was  the  work  of  a  monk  of 
the  monastery  of  Werden ;  but  if  the  poet  was  a  monk  at  all, 
which  seems  doubtful,  he  was  too  deeply  versed  in  the 
technicalities  and  style  of  the  popular  epic,  to  have  spent 
his  entire  life  within  the  cloisters.  He  may  perhaps  have 
entered  a  monastery  in  later  years,  but  there  seems  little  doubt 

1  Heliand,  mil  Glossar  herausgegeben,  von  M.  Heyne.  3rd  ed.,  Pader- 
born,  1883 ;  Die  altsdchsische  Bibddichtung,  herausgegeben,  von  P.  Piper,  i, 
Stuttgart,  1897.  Cp.  also  P.  Piper  in  D.N.L.  i,  159-186. 


2O  THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 

that  he  was  in  the  first  place  what  the  Anglo-Saxons  called  a 
scop,  a  wandering  singer.  The  home  of  the  poet  ought  also 
perhaps  to  be  sought  farther  north  and  nearer  the  sea  than 
Werden.  It  is  not  altogether  clear  how  this  Biblical  epic  was 
composed  :  traces  of  a  familiarity  with  the  best  exegetical  works 
of  the  time  are  unmistakable,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  the  poet's 
acquaintance  with  these  authorities  was  at  first-hand :  he  may, 
as  has  been  recently  suggested,  have  simply  based  his  poem 
upon  a  collection  of  homilies.  In  any  case,  there  is  no  slavish 
adherence  to  the  letter  of  the  commentaries.1  The  date  of 
the  composition  of  the  Heliand  and  Genesis  is  approximately 
830  ;  with  considerable  certainty  it  may  be  said  that  they  were 
not  written  before  822  and  not  later  than  840. 

The  To  the  old  Saxon  poet,  Christ  is  a  king  over  His  people, 

German!^     a  warrior,  a  mighty  ruler.     Episodes  such  as  the  entry  into 
epic.  Jerusalem  on  the  ass,  which  were  inconsistent  with  the  Saxon 

singer's  idea  of  kingly  dignity,  are  omitted  or  passed  lightly 
over:  humility  and  resignation  could  hardly  be  accounted 
virtues  in  his  eyes.  The  Christ  of  the  Heliand  is  a  hero  of 
the  old  Germanic  type,  an  ideal  of  courage  and  loyalty,  and 
His  disciples  are  noble  vassals  from  whom  He  demands  un- 
flinching loyalty  in  return.  Like  the  kings  in  the  epic  of 
Beowulf^  He  shows  His  graciousness  by  distributing  rewards 
and  arm-rings.  The  background  of  the  events  in  the  Heliand 
is  the  flat  Saxon  land  with  the  fresh  North  Sea,  familiar  to  the 
poet  and  his  hearers  :  "  Nazarethburg,"  "  Bethleemaburg," 
"  Rumuburg,"  called  up  more  vivid,  if  more  homely,  pictures 
than  any  description  of  Palestine  or  Rome;  the  marriage  at 
Cana  and  Herod's  birthday  feast  become  drinking-bouts  in 
the  hall  of  a  Germanic  prince. 

The  Biblical  story  is  thus  transferred  to  the  milieu  of  the 
Germanic  epic,  but  it  is  surprising  that  the  poem  is  not  in  this 
respect  even  more  realistic  than  it  is :  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
Saxon  poet  preserves  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament  more 
faithfully  than  Heinrich  von  Veldeke  some  centuries  later 
preserves  that  of  the  ALneid.  And  although  the  Heliand  is 
essentially  didactic  in  purpose,  its  poet  never  forgets  that  he 
is,  in  the  first  place,  not  a  preacher  but  a  singer ;  he  has  the 

1  Cp.  F.  Jostes'  papers  in  the  Zeitschrift f.  deutsch.  Altertum,  40  (1896),  160 
ff.,  and  341  ff. ;  A.  E.  Schdnbach's  article  on  Deutschfs  Christentum  vor  tau- 
send  Jahren  in  Cosmopolis,  i  (1896),  605  ff.,  and  R.  Koegel,  I.e.,  i,  i,  276  ff. 


CHAP.  III.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD.  21 

artist's  power  of  making  his  story  dramatic  and  interesting. 
The  Heliand  is  thus  a  genuine  epic.  Early  Christian  poetry 
has  nothing  that  surpasses  in  vividness  the  Saxon  poet's  de- 
scription of  Herod's  feast,  or  the  storm  upon  the  Sea  of  Galilee  ; 
it  has  little  that  approaches  the  solemn  grandeur  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  or  the  scene  on  the  Mount  of  Olives. 
Lines  like  the  following  show  the  poet's  power  of  rendering 
the  more  solemn  tones  of  the  Gospel  narrative : — 

"  '  Ik  mag  iu  tellian,'  quat  hie     'that  noh  uuirSit  thiu  tid  cuman, 
that  is  afstandan  ni  seal     sten  obar  6o"rum, 
ac  it  fellit  ti  foldu,     endi  it  fiur  nimit, 
gradag  logna,     thoh  it  nu  so  guodlic  si, 

so  uuislico  giuuaraht,     endi  so  duot  all  thesaro  uueroldes  giscapu, 
teglidit  gruoni  uuang.'     Thuo  gengun  im  is  iungron  tuo, 
fragodun  ina  so  stillo,     '  Huo  lango  seal  standan  noh,'  quathun  sia, 
'  thius  uuerold  an  uuunnion,     er  than  that  giuuand  cume, 
that  thie  lasto  dag    liohtes  seine 

thuru  uuolcansceon,     eftha  huann  is  thin  eft  uuan  cuman 
an  thesan  middilgard,     manno  cunnie 
te  adclianne,     dodun  endi  quikun, 
fro  min  thie  guodo  ?     us  is  thes  firiuuitt  mikil, 
uualdandeo  Crist,     huann  that  giuuerthan  sculi.' "  J 

Old  Saxon  Biblical  poetry  bears  witness  to  that  intimate  in- 
tercourse between  the  Continental  and  English  Saxons  which, 
still  existing  in  the  ninth  century,  enriched  the  old  German 
speech  with  so  many  new  words.  The  poet  of  the  Heliand 
was  undoubtedly  familiar  with  the  beginnings  of  a  religious  epic 
in  England,  and  his  poem  was  in  turn  read  by  Anglo-Saxons. 
A  large  part  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Genesis  is,  in  fact,  merely  a 
translation  of  the  Old  Saxon  Genesis?-  The  Heliand  is  the 
last  great  poem  in  alliterative  verse  in  a  West  Germanic 

1  "  '  Ich  kann  euch  erzahlen,'  sagte  er,  '  dass  die  Zeit  noch  kommen  wird, 
dass  davon  (i.e.,  von  dem  Tempel)  nicht  (ein)  Stein  iiber  (dem)  andern  stehen 
soil,  sondern  er  fallt  zur  Erde,  und  Feuer  ergreift  (lit.,  nimmt)  ihn,  gierige  Lohe, 
obgleich  er  jetzt  so  stattlich  ist,  so  weislich  bereitet ;  und  gleiches  thun  alle 
Schopfungen  dieser  Welt ;  die  griine  Aue  vergeht.'    Da  gingen  seine  Jiinger  zu 
ihm,  fragten  ihn  so  stille:  '  Wie  lange  soil  stehen  noch,'  sprachen  sie,  'diese 
Welt  in  Wonnen,  ehe  dann  die  Wende  kommt,   dass  der  letzte  Tag  (des) 
Lichtes  durch  (den)  Wolkenhimmel  scheme  ?  oder  wann  ist  deine  Absicht,  auf 
dieses  Erdenrund  wieder  zu  kommen,  (der)  Menschen  Geschlecht  zu  richten, 
Tote  und  Lebendige,  Herre  mein,  der  gute?    Uns  ist  dessen  grosse  Neugier, 
waltender  Christ,  wann  das  werden  solle '  "  (11.  4280-4293). 

2  That  part  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Genesis  is  a  translation  from  the  Old  Saxon 
was  first  conjectured  by  E.  Sievers  in  1875,  and  corroborated  nearly  twenty 
years  later  by  K.  Zangemeister's  discovery  of  fragments  of  the  Old  Saxon 
Genesis  in  the  Vatican.     Cp.  K.  Zangemeister  and  W.  Braune,  Bruchslucke  der 
altsdchsischen  Bibeldichtung  in  the  Neue  Heidelberger  Jahrb. ,  4  (1894),  205  ff. 


22 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 


The  S 'trass- 
burger 
Eide,  842. 


Ludwig  the 

German, 

843-876. 


The 
Muspilli. 


language,  and  this,  together  with  the  fact  that  it  was  written 
in  a  dialect  incomprehensible  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
militated  against  any  widespread  popularity.  As  far  as  the 
Germans  of  the  tenth  century  were  concerned,  the  Heliand 
might  have  been  written  in  a  dead  language ;  but  it  stands 
out,  nevertheless,  as  the  greatest  poetic  achievement  in  the 
European  literature  of  its  time. 

When  in  840  Charles  the  Great's  first  successor  died,  for- 
saken and  forlorn,  in  a  tent  on  an  island  in  the  Rhine,  a  storm 
of  war  and  dissension  had  already  broken  over  the  empire. 
The  two  sons  of  Ludwig  the  Pious,  Ludwig  and  Charles,  who 
were  in  revolt  against  their  father,  now  turned  upon  each 
other,  and  only  when  a  common  enemy  appeared  in  the 
person  of  their  brother  Lothar,  did  they  amicably  join  forces 
and  agree  to  a  division  of  the  empire.  In  842  the  two 
brothers  met  at  Strassburg  and  solemnly  swore  mutual  allegi- 
ance, Ludwig  taking  the  oath  in  the  Romance  tongue  of 
the  Western  Franks,  Charles  in  the  German  tongue,  which 
his  brother's  followers  understood.  These  Strassburger 
Eide1  form  an  outstanding  landmark  in  the  history  of  both 
France  and  Germany;  they  mark  the  division  of  the  Carlo- 
vingian  empire,  the  first  step  in  the  independent  development 
of  the  two  leading  nations  of  the  European  continent.  A  year 
later,  by  the  Treaty  of  Verdun,  Ludwig,  known  henceforth  as 
Ludwig  the  German,  became  acknowledged  ruler  of  the 
"  Kingdom  of  the  Eastern  Franks,"  while  Charles  ruled  over 
the  Western  Franks.  Ludwig  the  German  (843-876)  proved 
a  more  liberal-minded  patron  of  literature  than  his  father  had 
been ;  he  had  something  of  Charles  the  Great's  wide  intel- 
lectual sympathies,  and  preferred  to  have  men  of  education 
around  him.  The  Germanisation  of  the  liturgy  and  ordin- 
ances of  the  Church  went  on  apace  during  Ludwig's  reign, 
and  the  monasteries  were  unwearied  in  providing  glosses  to 
Latin  manuscripts. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  fragments  of  Old  High  German 
literature  belongs,  in  the  form  in  which  it  has  been  preserved, 
to  Ludwig  the  German's  reign.  This  is  the  so-called  Muspilli, 
one  hundred  and  six  lines  of  alliterative  verse  in  the  Bavarian 
dialect,  which  are  written  on  the  spare  sheets  of  a  beautiful 
Latin  manuscript  known  to  have  been  in  the  possession  of 

1  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  231  f.;  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  133  ff. 


CHAP.  III.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD.  23 

the  king  himself.1  It  is  tempting  to  see  in  this  fragment  a 
description  of  the  Germanic  "  Muspilli "  or  "  World  Destruc- 
tion," to  find  in  it  a  remnant  of  the  old  heathen  religion  in 
the  guise  of  the  Christian  Apocalypse.  The  battle  between 
the  angels  and  the  spirits  of  darkness  for  the  souls  of  the  dead 
at  the  Last  Judgment  is,  for  instance,  depicted  with  an  imagi- 
native grandeur  which  is  foreign  to  medieval  Christianity,  while 
Elijah  fighting  with  the  Antichrist  suggests  the  Scandinavian 
Thor's  destruction  of  the  Serpent  of  Midgard  : — 

"  S6  daz  Eliases  pluot    in  erda  kitriufit, 
s&  inprinnant  die  perga,     poum  ni  kistentit, 
entc  in  erdu,     aha  artruknent, 
muor  varswilhit  sih,     suiliz6t  lougiu  der  himil. 
mano  vallit,     prinnit  mittilagart.  .  .  . 
dar  ni  mac  mak  andremo     helfan  vora  demo  muspille."  ~ 

But  there  is,  after  all,  nothing  in  the  Muspilli  which  cannot 
be  traced  to  canonical  sources ;  the  Christian  ideas  have  only 
passed  through  the  Germanic  imagination  and  become  tinged 
with  the  grandeur  of  a  pre-Christian  heroism. 

As  the  reign  of  Ludwig  the  Pious  had  been  marked  by 
one  great  poem  on  the  life  of  Christ,  the  Heliand,  so  that  of 
his  successor  stands  out  as  the  age  of  the  second  German 
Messiad — namely,  the  Evangelienbiich  or  "Gospel  Book"  of 
Otfrid.  But  while  the  Heliand  is  written  in  alliterative  verse 
and  looks  backward  to  the  heroic  age,  then  disappearing 
rapidly  before  Christianity,  Otfrid's  poem  stands  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  epoch ;  it  is  suffused  with  the  meekness  of 
the  new  religion,  and  its  thoughts  are  set  to  the  music  of 
modern  poetry. 

Otfrid,  the  first  German  poet  whose  name  is  known  to  us,  otfrid, 
was  monk  and  priest  in  the  Alsatian  monastery  of  Weissen-  <-a.  8cx> 
burg.      Born  probably  about  the  beginning  of  the  century,     7 
he  studied  for  some  years  as  a  young  man  under  Rabanus 
Maurus  in  Fulda,  and  ultimately  rose  to  be  the  head  of  the 
convent  school  in  Weissenburg.     He  was  still  alive  in  868, 
about  which  date,  or  some  years  earlier,  his  work  was  com- 
pleted.     The  motive  which  prompted  the  writing  of  the  Liber  Ca.  868. 

1  Mullenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  7  ff.;  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  149  ff. 

2  "  Wenn  des  Elias  Blut  auf  (die)  Erde  trauft,  so  entbrennen  die  Berge, 
(es)  stcht  nicht  irgend  ein  Baum  auf  Erden,  (die)  Bache  vertrocknen,  (das)  Meer 
verschluckt  sich,  (es)  verbrennt  in  Lohe  der  Himmel,  (der)  Mond  fiillt,  (es) 
brennt  (die)  Erde  ...   da  mag  nicht  (ein)  Verwandter  (dem)  andern  helfen 
vor  dem  Untergang  der  Erde"  (11.  50-57). 


24  THE  OLD  HIGH   GERMAN   PERIOD.         [PART  I. 

evangeliorum  theotisce  conscriptus1  was  similar  to  that  which 
called  forth  the  Heliand — namely,  a  desire  to  combat  the 
love  of  heathen  poetry  in  the  laity,  by  winning  their  interest 
for  stories  from  the  Bible  written  in  their  own  tongue.  But 
Otfrid  was  far  from  being  as  successful  as  his  Saxon  predecessor. 
He  had  nothing  of  the  spontaneity  of  the  born  singer ;  he 
made  no  attempt  to  imitate  the  popular  epic.  Above  all, 
he  was  a  monk,  and  a  monk  learned  in  the  exegetical 
literature  of  his  time.  He  set  about  his  work  with  the 
conscious  intention  of  the  scholar  who  wished  to  give  his 
countrymen  an  epic  similar  to  those  which  Juvencus,  Sedulius, 
and  Arator  had  written  for  readers  of  Latin. 

Otfrid's  The  High  German  Soundshifting  had  hastened  the  end 

of  alliterative  verse  in  South  Germany.  With  regard  to 
the  form  of  his  poem,  Otfrid  had  no  choice;  he  was  com- 
pelled to  abandon  alliteration,  and  to  adopt  in  its  place 
rhyme,  with  which  the  Church  hymns  had  already  made  him 
familiar.  He  virtually  retained,  however,  the  alliterative  verse 
form,  namely,  the  long  line  broken  in  the  middle,  but,  instead 
of  using  alliterative  syllables,  he  made  the  half  verses  rhyme 
with  each  other.  Two  long  lines  form  a  strophe.  The 
whole  poem  is  divided  into  five  books,  and  each  book  into  a 
number  of  smaller  divisions  which  correspond  with  the  peri- 
copes  or  lessons  of  the  Church  service.  While  it  is  mainly  to 
his  adaptation  of  rhyme  to  German  verse  that  Otfrid  owes  his 
position  in  German  literature,  it  would  be  unjust  to  deny  him 
altogether  the  possession  of  higher  poetic  powers.  Overladen 
as  his  work  is  with  theological  learning,  and  hampered,  es- 
pecially in  the  earlier  part  of  the  poem,  by  technical  diffi- 
culties, there  are  here  and  there  in  his  verse  flashes  of 
genuine  lyric  feeling  which  deserve  to  be  lifted  out  of  the  dry 
religious  didacticism  in  which  they  are  imbedded.  In  lines 
like  the  following,  the  note  of  the  German  national  lyric  is 
not  to  be  mistaken  : — 

"  Uuolaga  elilenti,      harto  bistu  herti, 

thu  bist  harto  filu  suar,      thaz  sagen  ih  thir  in  alauuar. 
Mit  arabeitin  uuerbent,      thie  heiminges  tharbent ; 

ih  haben  iz  funtan  in  mir,      ni  fand  ih  liebes  uuiht  in  thir  ; 


1  Ed.  O.  Erdmann,  Halle,  1882  ;  selections  in  P.  Piper,  D.N.L.,  i,  186  ff. 
On  Otfrid  see  especially  A.  E.  Schonbach's  papers  in  the  Zeitschrift  f.  deutsch. 
Altertum,  38-40  (1894-96),  and  in  Cosmopolis,  i,  605  ff. 


CHAP.  III.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  25 

Ni  fand  in  thir  ih  ander  guat,      suntar  r6zagaz  muat, 

seragaz  herza      ioh  managfalta  smerza. 
Ob  uns  in  muat  gigange,      thaz  unsih  heim  lange, 

zi  themo  lante  in  gahe      ouh  iamar  gifahe  : 
Farames  s&  thie  gin6za      ouh  andara  striza, 

then  uueg,  ther  tmsih  uuenta     zi  eiginemo  lante."1 

Otfrid  had  no  small  share  of  the  characteristic  Germanic  Otfrid's 
love  for  mysticism  ;  he  delighted  in  that  quest  for  hidden  mysticism 
meanings  in  Scripture  which  the  Alexandrine  Jews  of  the 
third  century  had  introduced  into  Biblical  exegesis ;  he  dwelt 
not  only  upon  the  moral  application  of  the  Gospel  story,  but 
upon  its  spiritual  and  mystic  sides.  This  mysticism  might 
have  added  to  the  poetic  beauties  of  Otfrid's  poem,  had 
the  work  not  been  conceived  in  such  a  sordidly  didactic  spirit. 
The  Evangelienbuch  lacks  entirely  that  intimate  sympathy 
with  old  German  life  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Heliand. 
Otfrid's  Christ,  however,  is  no  less  a  German  king  than  the 
Saxon  Christ ;  the  Jewish  towns  are  "  burgen,"  and  John  the 
Baptist  fasts  "in  waldes  einote" — an  expression  that  fore- 
shadows Tieck's  "  Waldeinsamkeit."  But  the  fire  of  the 
Germanic  epic  is  gone,  and  the  mild  peace  and  also  the 
prosaic  homeliness  of  the  cloister  have  taken  its  place.  As 
an  epic,  the  Gospel  Book  of  Otfrid  cannot  be  compared  with 
the  Heliand,  but  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  literary  monument  of  the 
first  importance ;  its  influence  upon  both  the  language  and  the 
metrical  forms  of  German  poetry  may  be  traced  through  at 
least  two  centuries ;  from  it  some  of  the  chief  streams  in  the 
national  literature  take  their  beginning. 

With  Otfrid,  Old  High  German  poetry  reaches,  we  might 
say,  its  culminating-point,  and  the  scanty  religious  fragments  of 
the  latter  half  of  the  ninth  and  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century  stand  completely  in  the  shadow  of  the  Evangelien- 
buch. Generally  speaking,  the  literary  tendency  of  Ludwig  Later 
the  German's  reign  was  in  the  direction  of  a  freer,  more 
imaginative  treatment  of  religious  themes.  This  is  apparent, 
not  only  in  the  Muspilli^  but  in  such  post-Otfridian  poems 

1  ' '  Ach  (du)  Fremdland  !  sehr  hart  bist  du,  du  bist  gar  sehr  schwer,  das 
sage  ich  dir  furwahr.  Unter  Miihsalen  leben  dahin  (die),  die  (der)  Heimat 
entbehren.  Ich  habe  es  an  mir  erfahren  (lit.,  gefunden),  nicht  fand  ich  etwas 
Liebes  an  dir.  Nicht  fand  ich  an  dir  anderes  Gutes,  ausser  traurigen  Sinn, 
weherfulltes  Herz  und  mannigfaltigen  Schmerz.  Wenn  uns  in  den  Sinn 
kommt,  dass  uns  heim  verlangt,  (wenn  uns)  auch  Sehnsucht  nach  dem  Lande 
plbtzlich  ergreift,  (so)  fahren  wir,  wie  die  Genossen,  [auch]  eine  andere  Strasse, 
den  Weg,  der  uns  zu  (unserem)  eignen  Lande  fuhre"  (r,  18,  11.  25-34). 


26  THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.         [PART  I. 

as  the  Bittgesang  an  den  heiligen  Petms,  Christus  und  die 
Samariterin^  the  Lied  vom  heiligen  Georg,  and  a  Bavarian 
version  of  the  138^  Psalm.1 

After  the  death  of  Ludwig  the  German  in  876,  the  kingdom 
of  the  Eastern  Franks  was  again  at  the  mercy  of  dissension 
within  and  foes  without,  and  German  literature,  which  has 
suffered  perhaps  more  than  other  literatures  from  the  nation's 
checkered  political  history,  lost  completely  the  small  vantage- 
ground  it  had  gained.  As  regards  poetry  under  the  last 
Carlovingians,  there  is  little  to  say.  The  victory  of  young 
Ludwig  III.  over  the  Normans  at  Saucourt,  in  88 1,  elicited  a 
The  Lttd  German  song  in  his  honour,  the  so-called  Ludwigslied,  in 
™8i* te' '  which  the  king  is  celebrated  as  the  champion  of  heaven  ; z 
the  author  was  evidently  a  Rhine-Frankish  monk.  The 
decay  of  the  Carlovingian  empire  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
readiness  with  which  men's  thoughts  reverted  to  the  great 
Charles.  A  Saxon  singer,  the  "  Poeta  Saxo,"  celebrated, 
between  888  and  891,  the  deeds  of  Charles  (De  gestis 
Caroli]  in  Latin  verses,  and  a  "  Monk  of  St  Gall,"  whose 
name  is  unknown,  wrote,  between  884  and  887,  a  Latin 
life  of  the  great  king  which  often  throws  a  more  vivid 
light  on  his  personality  than  Einhard's  biography.  But 
German  king  although  he  was,  Charles  the  Great  never  be- 
came in  Germany  what  he  was  among  his  Latin  subjects, 
an  epic  hero  and  the  central  figure  of  a  poetic  literature ;  the 
only  German  poems  in  which  he  plays  a  leading  part  are 
adaptations  from  the  French. 

1  Mullenhoff  and  Scherer.  I.e.,  i,  21  f.,  22  ff..  31  ff.,  35  ff. ;  also  P.  Piper 
I.e.,  261  ff. 

2  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  24  ff.;  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  257  ff. 


27 


CHAPTER    IV. 

LATIN    LITERATURE    UNDER    THE    SAXON    EMPERORS. 
NOTKER.       THE    LITURGIC    DRAMA. 

WITH  the  accession  of  Heinrich  I.  German  literature  re- 
ceived a  check  which  undid  the  slow  achievement  of  genera- 
tions. The  High  German  tongue,  and  especially  that 
Prankish  dialect  of  it  which  Otfrid  wrote,  was  just  be- 
ginning to  be  recognised  as  the  literary  language  of  the 
East  Prankish  kingdom  when  the  light  of  courtly  favour  was 
suddenly  withdrawn  from  it.  The  new  dynasty  was  a  Saxon  The  Saxon 
race  of  kings  who  held  their  Court  amidst  a  Low  German 
people,  to  the  north  of  the  Harz  Mountains.  This,  however, 
is  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  explain  the  disadvantage  at  which 
literature  was  placed  in  the  tenth  century.  Under  the  feeble 
rule  of  the  later  Carlovingians,  the  struggle  of  the  German 
peoples  for  existence  had  begun  anew.  First,  Normans  had 
made  victorious  inroads  into  the  kingdom,  then  came  Slavs 
and  Danes,  and  then,  like  a  second  Hunnish  invasion,  the 
Hungarians  swept  down  upon  the  eastern  frontiers.  The 
conflicts  of  the  Migrations  seemed  about  to  repeat  them- 
selves when  the  strong  hand  of  the  Saxon  kings  saved  the 
empire.  It  was  manifestly  no  age  for  literature,  but  the 
literary  undercurrent  was  strong,  and  only  awaited  a  favour- 
able opportunity  to  make  itself  felt.  In  the  Carlovingian  age 
the  Saxons,  as  we  have  seen,  possessed  in  the  Hildebrandslied 
and  the  Heliand  a  vigorous  national  poetry,  and  it  was  un- 
doubtedly the  Saxon  race  that  kept  the  national  epic  alive. 
But  the  struggles  of  the  tenth  century  filled  the  popular 
imagination  with  new  poetry  and  gave  it  new  heroes,  and 
these  were  by  degrees  ingrafted  upon  the  older  traditions, 


28  THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.         [PART  I. 

just  as,  centuries  before,  the  heroic  poetry  of  the  Migrations 
had  blended  with  the  prehistoric  sagas. 

In  spite  of  the  stormy  times,  we  might  have  possessed  actual 
proofs  of  this  Saxon  epic  tradition,  had  the  conditions  for 
literature  been  as  favourable  at  the  Saxon  Court  as  they  had 
been  at  that  of  the  Carlovingians.  But  the  early  Saxon  kings 
cared  little  for  literature — the  first  Heinrich  could  neither  read 
nor  write,  Otto  I.  not  until  late  in  life, — and  when  the  "  Saxon 
Renaissance "  did  set  in,  it  was  restricted  to  a  literature  in 
Latin,  inspired  by  Greek  and  Byzantine  ideas.  Otto  the 
Great  had  other  things  to  do  than  to  foster  literature  :  it  was 
he  who  laid  the  real  foundations  of  the  "  Holy  Roman 
Empire"  and  gave  Germany  the  leading  voice  in  European 
politics  for  the  remaining  centuries  of  the  middle  ages ;  he 
first  inspired  the  German  people  with  a  sense  of  unity  and  of 
national  greatness.  But  of  a  national  literature  the  Saxon 
emperors  knew  practically  nothing,  and  not  a  single  poem 
in  the  German  tongue  has  been  preserved  from  a  period  of 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half. 

The  The  only  healthy  sign  in  this,  the  darkest  age  of  German 

ieute""  poetry,  was  the  growing  importance  of  the  "  Spielleute " 
or  "  Gleemen."  These  "  wandering  folk  "  (diu  varnde  diet}, 
as  they  were  called  at  a  later  period,  were  the  virtual  de- 
scendants of  the  old  Roman  histriones  and  mimi ;  they  were 
the  jesters  and  mountebanks  to  whom  the  people  looked 
for  their  entertainment.  But  they  were  more  than  jesters, 
more  even  than  the  gossips  and  news-bearers  of  their  age ; 
they  also  took  the  place  of  the  scops  or  rhapsodists  who, 
centuries  before,  had  sung  at  the  Courts  of  Gothic  kings. 
Now,  under  the  Saxon  emperors,  these  wandering  singers 
began  to  recover  something  of  the  prestige  which  their  pre- 
Christian  forerunners  had  enjoyed.  In  the  dark  centuries 
the  "Spielleute"  were  the  real  bearers  of  epic  traditions, 
the  true  preservers  of  the  national  poetry.  But  of  this 
poetry  we  possess  nothing  that  is  older  than  the  twelfth 
century ;  our  knowledge  of  it  comes  only  from  indirect 
sources,  and  from  Latin  versions  made  by  monks  in  the 
seclusion  of  monasteries. 

For  the  monasteries  remained,  now  as  under  the  Carlo- 
vingians, the  only  abiding-places  for  intellectual  life  :  here 
alone  could  a  written  literature  find  refuge.  After  the  death 


CHAP.  IV.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  29 

of  Rabanus  Maurus  in  856,  the  glory  of  Fulda  was  eclipsed 
by  that  of  Reichenau,  which  in  turn  had  to  yield  to  the 
Alemannian  monastery  of  St  Gall.  All  through  the  tenth  StGall. 
and  a  considerable  part  of  the  eleventh  century,  St  Gall  was 
one  of  the  great  fountainheads  of  light  north  of  the  Alps. 
Under  the  Saxon  emperors,  literature,  scholarship,  and  music 
owed  more  to  this  monastery  than  to  any  other.  Notker 
the  Stammerer,  the  first  of  three  famous  monks  of  St  Gall 
who  bore  the  name  Notker,  perfected  the  "  Sequentia,"  a  form 
of  religious  poetry  of  French  origin  ;  it  consisted  of  Latin 
verses  adapted  to  the  modulations  sung  after  the  word 
"  Hallelujah  "  in  the  Gradual  of  the  Mass.  A  Lobgesang  auf 
den  heiligen  Gallus  (ca.  890),  ascribed  to  Ratpert  of  St  Gall, 
was  long  popular  among  the  people,  but  it  has  only  been 
preserved  in  a  Latin  translation  ; x  and  about  a  hundred  years 
later,  Notker  Labeo,  the  third  Notker,  once  more  made  this 
monastery  famous  in  literary  annals  by  his  translations.  But 
the  greatest  debt  which  literature  owes  St  Gall  is  the  Latin 
version  of  the  Lay  of  Walther  of  Aquitaine,  the  Waltharius  Wal- 
manu  fortis?  a  poem  which  was  written  by  Ekkehard  of  thar*us> 
St  Gall  about  930,  and  revised  a  century  later  by  another 
Ekkehard — the  fourth  of  that  name  in  the  records  of  the 
monastery. 

The  Waltharilied  describes  an  episode  in  the  lives  of 
Walther  of  Aquitaine  and  his  betrothed,  Hildegund  of  Burg- 
undy, both  of  whom  were  held  as  hostages  by  the  Huns. 
They  escape  from  Attila's  Court,  and  after  forty  days'  wandering 
reach  the  Rhine  near  Worms.  Gunther,  the  Prankish  king, 
whose  vassal,  Hagen,  has  also  been  a  hostage,  learns  of  their 
return,  and  lays  claim  to  the  treasure  with  which  Walther's 
horse  is  laden.  To  enforce  his  claim,  Gunther  sets  out  with 
twelve  chosen  vassals  in  pursuit  of  Walther  and  Hildegund, 
and  overtakes  them  in  a  wild  defile  of  the  Vosges  Mountains. 
Here  Walther  slays  eleven  of  these  vassals  one  after  the 
other,  each  of  the  combats  being  fully  described  by  the  poet, 
with  a  skilful  avoidance  of  repetition.  Hagen  and  the  king 
alone  are  left,  and  on  the  following  day  both  fall  upon  Walther 
together.  After  a  desperate  struggle  all  three  are  disabled. 

1  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  27  ff. 

9  Ed.  J.  V.  Scheffel  and  A.  Holder  (with  German  translation),  Stuttgart, 
1874,  and  by  H.  Althof,  i,  Leipzig,  1899 ;  the  latter  has  also  published  a 
translation,  Leipzig,  1896. 


3O  THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 

Peace  is  made,  and  Walther  brings  bride  and  treasure  home 
in  safety. 

Ekkehard  wrote  Waltharius  as  an  exercise  in  Latin  verse, 
while  still  an  "  unfledged  scholar "  in  the  convent :  it  takes, 
however,  a  high  place,  perhaps  the  highest,  among  the  epics 
of  medieval  Latin  literature.  The  Waltharius  is  not,  as 
was  once  supposed,  a  mere  translation  of  some  lost  Old 
High  German  epic  ;  and  if  Ekkehard  had  any  written  version 
of  the  story  before  him  at  all,  it  was  most  likely  one  in 
Latin  prose.  His  poetic  style  is  modelled  upon  Virgil  and 
Prudentius  ;  the  polish  of  the  Latin  hexameter  and  the 
classic  sense  of  proportion,  generally  lacking  in  medieval 
literature,  give  an  appearance  of  artistic  ripeness  to  the  poem 
which  is  in  some  measure  spurious.  The  heroic  spirit  in 
the  Waltharilied  is  still  unsoftened  by  the  courtesies  of 
medieval  chivalry,  but  through  the  fierce  life  which  it  de- 
scribes there  runs  a  strain  of  almost  modern  tenderness. 
One  might  seek  long  through  pre- Renaissance  literature  to 
find  anything  more  beautiful  than  Ekkehard's  description  of 
the  eve  of  the  final  combat,  when  Hildegund,  singing  to  keep 
herself  awake,  watches  by  her  sleeping  champion  through  the 
first  half  of  the  night,  while  the  latter  keeps  watch  over  her 
during  the  second.1  But  the  tenderness  here  is  not  Germanic  ; 
it  is  rather  the  antique  tenderness  of  Virgil.  Ekkehard's  poem 
has  not  the  virility  of  the  Middle  High  German  epics;  the 
reader  is  spared  the  long  uninteresting  passages  which  occur  in 
the  latter,  but  he  also  misses  their  rough  vigour  and  freshness. 
The  issues  of  Waltharius  are  narrower  ;  its  ideas  are  illum- 
ined, not  by  the  sun  and  moon  of  the  real  world,  but  by 
the  subdued  artificial  light,  half  classical,  half  monkish,  of 
the  Ottonian  Renaissance.  After  all,  the  chief  ,value  of  this 
poem  is  that  it  is  the  only  specimen  of  a  German  heroic 
saga  that  has  come  down  to  us  from  a  period  of  more  than 
three  centuries.  Of  a  Latin  version  of  the  Nibelungen  saga, 
written  at  the  command  of  Bishop  Pilgrim  of  Passau  at  the 
close  of  the  tenth  century,  nothing  has  been  preserved. 
The  Another  Latin  poem  is  the  Ecbasis  captivi  ("The  Flight  of 

Ecbasis        the  Captive  "),2  which  was  written  in  leonine  hexameters,  about 
ca.  940'.        94°>  by  a  German  monk  of  Toul  in  Lorraine.     This  poem  has 

1  Lines  1172-1187.     The  entire  poem  is  only  1456  verses  long. 

2  Ed.  E.  Voigt  in  Quellen  und  Forschungen,  8,  Strassburg,  1875. 


CHAP.  IV.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  31 

a  particular  interest  as  forming  the  first  link  in  the  chain  of 
the  "  Beast  Epic "  in  European  literature.  The  naive  em- 
bodiment of  popular  satire,  in  which  animals  are  the  dramatis 
persona,  sprang  partly  from  the  Greek  and  oriental  fable-lore 
associated  with  ^Esop's  name,  partly  from  the  allegories  of  the 
Alexandrian  Physiologus  of  the  second  century  :  it  was  one  of 
the  favourite  vehicles  of  satire  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation, 
and  retained  its  hold  upon  the  imagination  of  the  Continent 
for  long  after.  An  idle  monk,  on  whom  the  monastic  reforms 
of  the  tenth  century  weigh  heavily,  resolves,  so  the  introduc- 
tion to  the  Ecbasis  captivi  tells  us,  to  atone  for  his  past  sloth 
by  composing  a  poem.  He  relates,  as  a  kind  of  allegory 
of  his  own  life,  the  story  of  a  calf  which,  escaping  from  its 
tether,  wanders  into  the  forest  and  falls  into  the  clutches  of 
a  wolf.  The  wolf,  like  a  monk  weary  of  fasting,  rejoices  in 
the  prospect  of  a  good  meal ;  but  he  grants  the  calf  respite 
until  the  following  morning.  When  the  morrow  comes,  the 
herd,  in  its  search  for  the  missing  calf,  appears  before  the 
wolf's  den,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  fox's  cunning — which  is 
further  exemplified  by  the  fable  of  the  sick  lion,  told  at  great 
length  by  the  wolf — rescues  the  calf. 

The  writings  of  the  nun  Hrotsuith  or  Roswitha  (born  ca.   Hrotsuith 
930),  of  the  Saxon  monastery  of  Gandersheim,  are  characteristic  ofGanders- 
of  the  literary  and  religious  spirit  of  the  Ottonian  renaissance,   Ca.  930- 
but  they  belong  to  a  history  of  Latin  rather  than  of  German   I000> 
literature.      Her  six  dramas,1  written  with  a  view  to  supplant- 
ing Terence  in  the  monasteries,  are  legends  in  dialogue  rather 
than  dramas,  but  the  dialogue  has  often  genuinely  dramatic 
qualities  :  it  is  handled  with  a  naturalness  and  skill  which  were 
not  surpassed  by  the  humanistic  dramatists  of  the  sixteenth 
century.     In  these  plays  Hrotsuith  enforces  the  purity  of  life 
which  Terence  made  light  of.     They  are  essentially  dramas 
with  a  purpose,  but  the  authoress  is  at  the  same  time  not 
afraid  of  embellishing  them  with  a  piquancy  which  is  hardly 
in  keeping  with  that  purpose.     Probably,  however,  without 
this  piquancy  Hrotsuith  would  have  had  little  chance  of  suc- 
cessfully rivalling  the  Roman  dramatist. 

Besides  the  Ecbasis  captivi,  other  Latin  literature  of  this 
period  bears  witness  to  the  eagerness  with  which  the  German 

1  Ed.  K.  A.  Barack,  Nurnberg,  1858  ;  a  translation  by  O.  Pilz  in  Reclam's 
Universal-Bibliothek,  No.  2491-92. 


THE   OLD   HIGH    GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 


Latin 
sequences. 


De  Hein- 
rico,  ca. 
984. 


Ruodlieb, 
ca.  1030. 


mind  seized  upon  the  anecdotes,  fables,  and  jests  which 
intercourse  with  the  south  of  Europe  had  brought  within 
its  reach.  The  sequences  preserved  under  the  names  Modus 
floruni)  Modus  Liebinc,  De  Lantfrido  et  Cobbone^-  are  ex- 
amples of  an  anecdotal  literature  which,  from  this  time  on, 
continued  steadily  to  increase  until,  in  the  age  of  the  Refor- 
mation, it  reached  its  high -water  mark.  A  short  political 
poem,  De  Heinrico  (ca.  984), 2  on  Duke  Heinrich  of  Bavaria, 
Otto  I.'s  brother,  may  also  be  mentioned  here  :  it  is  written 
in  alternating  Latin  and  German  lines  which  are  connected 
by  rhymes  and  assonances. 

The  most  important  evidence  of  the  literary  activity  of  the 
Spielleute  is  to  be  found  in  the  Latin  epic  Ruodlieb?  written 
about  the  year  1030  in  the  Bavarian  monastery  of  Tegernsee. 
Ruodlieb  is  the  first  romance  of  adventure,  the  oldest  novel, 
in  European  literature ;  it  stands,  it  might  be  said,  upon  the 
threshold  of  the  medieval  renaissance  which  was  to  sweep  over 
Europe  in  the  coming  centuries.  Thus  it  belongs,  properly 
speaking,  rather  to  the  Middle  High  German  than  to  the  Old 
High  German  epoch.  Ruodlieb  is  a  purely  German  poem  in 
Latin  garb ;  we  seek  vainly  in  it  either  for  the  classical  re- 
miniscences or  the  classical  form  of  Waltharius.  It  is  char- 
acteristically medieval  in  its  fondness  for  realistic  detail ;  its 
author  takes  as  much  delight  in  describing  the  knightly 
costumes  and  ceremonials  of  his  time  as  any  Middle  High 
German  Court  singer.  But  Ruodlieb  is  not  only  a  forerunner 
of  the  Court  Epic ;  with  even  more  justice  it  may  be  placed 
at  the  head  of  that  lower  anecdotal  epic  with  which  the 
Spielleute  were  especially  associated  in  Middle  High  Ger- 
man times :  the  realism,  again,  with  which  the  life  of  the 
common  people  is  described,  makes  it  the  earliest  example 
of  that  peasant  poetry  which  culminated  in  the  thirteenth 
century  in  Meier  Helmbrecht,  It  is  thus  possible  to  dis- 
cover in  Ruodlieb  the  germs  of  the  greater  mass  of  Middle 
High  German  narrative  poetry.  The  basis  of  the  story  is 
one  of  those  cosmopolitan  anecdotes  for  which  the  Spielleute 
show  so  strong  a  preference.  A  young  man  of  noble  birth 
leaves  his  home  to  seek  in  distant  lands  the  honours  that  are 

1  Mullenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  40  ff. 

2  Mullenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.,  i,  39  f. 

3  Ed.  F.  Seller,  Halle,  1882.     A  German  translation  by  M.  Heyne,  Leipzig, 
1897. 


CHAP.  IV.]      THE  OLD   HIGH  GERMAN   PERIOD.  33 

denied  him  in  his  own.  He  meets  a  huntsman  who  brings 
him  to  the  court  of  a  king,  where  he  is  successful  not  only 
in  the  chase  but  as  a  leader  in  battle.  After  the  lapse  of  ten 
years,  a  letter  arrives  from  his  mother,  begging  him  to  return 
to  her.  The  king  asks  him  what  remuneration  he  desires  for 
his  services,  and  he  chooses  wisdom  rather  than  riches.  The 
king  thereupon  gives  him  twelve  wise  maxims,  but  at  the  same 
time  does  not  let  him  depart  without  more  material  reward. 
He  presents  him  with  two  loaves  of  bread,  not  to  be  cut  until 
he  reaches  home  ;  in  these  loaves  are  concealed  money  and 
treasures.  The  poet  evidently  intended  to  lead  his  hero 
through  twelve  adventures  illustrating  the  truth  of  the  king's 
maxims,  but  only  three  are  narrated,  and  then  the  story 
loses  itself  in  other  issues.  Of  the  multifarious  elements 
which  are  thus  loosely  thrown  together  to  form  Ruodlieb^  one 
is  taken  from  the  old  Germanic  "  Heldensage,"  namely,  an 
episode  from  the  life  of  a  King  Ruodlieb,  whom  we  find 
again  two  centuries  later  in  the  Eckenlied ;  and  although  it  is 
not  expressly  mentioned,  it  was  evidently  intended  that  the 
hero  should  bear  this  name,  Ruodlieb.  Of  the  author  nothing 
is  known.  From  the  poem  itself,  it  has  been  inferred  that 
he  was  of  noble  birth,  spent  his  best  years  at  the  Court  of 
Heinrich  II.,  and  retired  to  the  monastery  of  Tegernsee  only 
in  later  life.  Whatever  truth  there  may  be  in  these  suppo- 
sitions, it  must  be  admitted  that  the  stamp  of  actuality  is 
strong  upon  the  poem  ;  kings  and  courts,  women  and  peasants, 
are  not  seen  in  such  vividly  realistic  colours  through  the 
narrow  windows  of  a  cloister.  The  poet  of  Ruodlieb  was 
clearly  more  man  of  the  world  than  monk. 

In  this  age  of  exclusively  Latin  culture,  Notker  III.,  Notker  Notker,  ca. 
the  German,  or  Notker  Labeo  ("the  thick-lipped"),  as  he  952-1022. 
was  variously  called  (ca.  952-1022),  the  head  of  the  convent 
school  of  St  Gall,  occupies  a  unique  position  :  he  was,  as  far 
as  is  known,  the  only  scholar  of  his  age  who  took  a  warm 
interest  in  the  language  of  the  people.  He  revived  that  form 
of  activity  which,  since  the  decay  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty, 
had  fallen  into  abeyance  in  the  monasteries,  the  interpretation 
of  Latin  works  in  the  vernacular.  Notker,  however,  was  a 
schoolman  rather  than  a  theologian;  the  books  he  selected 
for  translation,  his  method  of  retaining  or  introducing  Latin 
words  and  phrases,  presumably  familiar  to  his  scholars,  point 

c 


34 


THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.          [PART  I. 


Notker's 
style. 


The  origin 
of  the 
drama. 


to  an  essentially  pedagogic  object  in  his  work.  Besides 
several  writings  in  Latin,  we  possess  German  versions 
by  Notker  of  Boethius's  De  consolatione  philosophic,  of 
Aristotle's  Categories  and  Hermeneutics,  of  the  remarkable 
allegorical  treatise,  De  nuptiis  Philologies  ef  Mercurii  by 
Marcianus  Capella,  a  Neoplatonist  of  the  fifth  century,  and, 
most  popular  of  all,  a  translation  and  commentary  of  the 
Psalter.  A  few  shorter  writings,  collected  under  the  title 
De  musica,  are  distinguished  from  his  other  works  by  being 
exclusively  in  German.  It  is  unfortunate,  however,  that  the 
most  interesting  of  Notker's  translations,  those  of  the  Disticha 
Catonis,  of  Virgil's  Bucolica,  and  the  Andria  of  Terence,  have 
not  been  preserved.1  Notwithstanding  the  admixture  of  Latin 
in  his  prose,  Notker  is  a  master  in  the  use  of  the  vernacular : 
he  is  the  only  prose-writer  in  older  German  literature,  with 
the  exception  of  the  unknown  translator  of  Isidorus,  who  may 
be  said  to  have  possessed  a  style.  His  choice  of  words 
reveals  fineness  of  taste,  the  balance  of  his  sentences  a  feeling 
for  rhythm,  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  parallel  in  any 
German  writer  earlier  than  the  eighteenth  century. 

Before  leaving  this  first  period  in  the  history  of  German 
literature,  it  is  necessary  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the  origins 
of  a  literary  genre  which  was  not,  however,  to  play  any  con- 
siderable part  in  German  poetry  for  more  than  six  hundred 
years — the  drama.  The  modern  European  drama,  like  the 
drama  of  the  Greeks,  was  religious  in  its  origin ;  but  it  sprang 
from  the  liturgy  of  the  Church,  and  not  from  the  old,  in- 
digenous religion,  which  was  too  soon  and  too  completely 
effaced  by  Christianity  to  leave  upon  literature  more  than  a 
few  uncertain  traces.  The  earliest  dramas  in  all  European 
literatures  are  liturgic.  As  far  back  as  the  tenth  century,  the 
Easter  and  Christmas  services  of  the  Church  were  invested 
with  a  certain  dramatic  character :  the  sacred  events  were 
narrated  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  two  priests.  A 
certain  part  of  the  church  represented,  for  instance,  the 
Holy  Sepulchre ;  the  burial  of  Christ  on  Good  Friday  was 
symbolised  by  a  cross  wrapped  in  cloths  and  deposited  in 
this  place ;  and  on  Easter  Sunday,  two  priests  dressed  as 

1  P.  Piper,  Die  Schriften  Notkers  und  seiner  Schule,  Freiburg,  1882 ;  also 
in  D.N.L.,  i,  337  ff. 


CHAP.  IV.]      THE   OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.  35 

angels  announced  to  the  women  who  came  to  the  empty  grave 
seeking  Christ :  "  Non  est  hie,  surrexit  sicut  prcedixerat,  ite, 
nunciate,  quia  surrexit  de  sepulchral  This  was  the  starting- 
point  for  the  development  of  the  later  Easter  and  Passion 
Plays. 

These  representations  at  Easter  and  Christmas  soon  became 
more  elaborate,  but  for  long  they  remained  essentially  part  of 
the  Church  service.  It  is  thus  not  to  them,  but  to  the 
celebrations  of  the  Epiphany,  that  we  must  look  for  the  first  Epiphany 
step  towards  a  secularisation  of  the  drama.  The  elements  of  Plays- 
these  latter  representations — the  Wise  Men  before  Herod,  the 
Slaughter  of  the  Innocents,  the  Flight  into  Egypt — being  of  a 
less  solemn  nature,  admitted  more  readily  of  secular  treat- 
ment. A  German  Dreikonigsspiel  of  this  kind  in  Latin  verse 
has  been  preserved  from  the  eleventh  century.  As  time  went 
on,  these  plays  were  collected  into  cycles ;  events  of  less  im- 
mediate bearing  on  the  story  were  interpolated ;  the  books  of 
the  Old  Testament,  more  especially  those  of  the  Prophets, 
were  drawn  upon.  Thus,  in  the  course  of  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries,  the  liturgic  drama  gradually  assumed 
the  proportions  of  a  "  world  drama,"  in  which  the  whole 
religious  cosmogony  of  the  age  was  embodied.  Isaac  and  his 
Sons  was  the  theme  of  a  drama  of  the  twelfth  century,  and 
in  1194  a  great  representation  was  given  at  Regensburg,  the 
subject  of  which  was  the  creation  of  the  angels,  the  dethrone- 
ment of  Lucifer,  the  Creation,  the  Fall,  and  the  prophecies. 
A  Spiel  vom  Antichrist  from  the  monastery  of  Tegernsee  is  a  Antichrist 
good  example  of  the  "  Antichrist  Plays  "  of  the  twelfth  century  ; 
it  reflects  faintly  the  national  spirit  of  the  German  empire 
under  Barbarossa,  for  it  is  a  German  Kaiser  who  here  rules 
over  the  earth  at  the  end  of  things. 

As  the  religious  drama  grew  more  secular  and  elaborate, 
two  changes  became  inevitable,  the  exclusion  of  the  plays 
from  the  churches  and  the  use  of  the  language  of  the  people. 
The  first  of  these  changes  took  place  in  the  twelfth  century, 
the  scene  of  the  performances  being  removed  in  the  first  place 
to  the  adjacent  churchyards.  But  the  Latin  tongue  was  not 
so  easily  ousted ;  in  fact,  no  form  of  literature  so  long  resisted 
the  inroads  of  the  vernacular  as  the  drama.  Even  as  late  as 
the  thirteenth  century  all  that  was  German  in  these  religious 


36  THE  OLD   HIGH   GERMAN    PERIOD.         [PART  I. 

plays  consisted  of  hymns  which  were  obviously  intended  to  be 
sung  by  the  spectators.1 

But  this  brings  us  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Old  High  Ger- 
man literature.  With  Notker  of  St  Gall,  who  stands  alone  in 
his  age  without  immediate  predecessors  or  successors,  the  first 
period  in  the  history  of  German  literature  comes  to  a  close. 
It  is  in  no  sense  a  great  period ;  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
fragmentary  verses  which  mirror  the  ancient  Germanic  im- 
agination, Old  High  German  literature  has  little  or  no  poetic 
worth.  The  only  great  literary  monument  of  the  period, 
the  Heliand,  is  written  in  a  Saxon,  not  a  High  German 
dialect.  Thus,  the  most  that  can  be  claimed  for  the  litera- 
ture of  these  centuries  is  that  it  casts  a  faint  and  fitful 
light  upon  the  intellectual  evolution  of  the  German  people, 
under  the  Carlovingians  and  the  Saxon  emperors.  The 
interest  which  it  possesses  for  us  to-day  is  not  literary  but 
linguistic. 

1  Cp.  E.  Wilkens,  Geschichte  der  geistlichen  Splele  in  Deutschland,  Got- 
tingen,  1872 ;  L.  Wirth,  Die  Osier-  und  Passionsspiele  bis  zum  16.  Jahrhun- 
dert,  Halle,  1889;  R.  Froning,  Das  mittelalterliche  Drama,  D.N.L.,  14.  i, 
2,  and  3  [1892]. 


PART    II. 
MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE 


CHAPTER   I. 

ASCETICISM.       THE    BEGINNINGS    OF   THE   POPULAR    EPIC. 

THE  eleventh  century  was  hardly  more  favourable  for  German 
literature  than  the  tenth  had  been.  The  brilliant  political 
history  of  the  Saxon  emperors  had  found,  as  we  have  seen, 
no  echo  in  popular  poetry ;  and  the  monastic  reforms  which,  Monas 
issuing  from  the  Burgundian  monastery  of  Cluny,  gradually  reform< 
spread  over  Europe  until,  towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
century,  they  were  thundered  from  the  papal  throne  by  Gregory 
VII. ,  were  even  less  favourable  to  literary  production  than  the 
Ottonian  renaissance  had  been.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
return  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  Benedictine  Rule  was  urgent 
for  the  credit  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  many  of  the  best 
features  of  medieval  life — the  outburst  of  scholasticism  in 
France,  for  instance,  the  enthusiasm  that  led  the  flower  of 
Europe  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre — may  be  traced  back  to  the 
Cluny  reforms.  The  fact,  however,  remains  that,  in  the  be- 
ginning, this  spirit  of  reform  created  a  breach  between  the 
secular  and  religious  life,  which  made  progress  impossible  : 
its  asceticism  fell  like  a  blight  upon  literature.  The  classical 
poets  whom  the  monks  had  read  in  the  tenth  century  now  lay 
undisturbed  in  the  cloister  libraries,  and  the  scholarly  activity 
of  monasteries  like  St  Gall  died  completely  out. 

The  beginnings  of  these  monastic  reforms  had  already  been  The  poetry 
lightly  reflected  in  the  Ecbasis  captivi  of  the  monk  of  Toul,  in 
the  tenth  century ;  their  depressing  influence  is  first  seen  in 
the  literature  of  the  following  one.  What  little  poetry  was 
written,  only  reiterated  the  disconsolate  cry,  "Memento  mori !  " 
A  poem  on  "  the  contempt  for  the  world,"  to  which  this  title, 
Memento  mori,  has  been  given,  is  a  sermon  in  verse  on  the  un- 


4O  MIDDLE  HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Hartman's 

Vom 

Glauben. 


The 

Etzolied, 
ca.  1060. 


Willeram, 
ca.  1060. 


Biblical 
narrative. 


certainty  of  human  life  and  the  vanity  of  worldly  possessions ; 
it  was  probably  written  about  1070  by  an  Alemannian  monk. 
The  same  spirit  breathes  through  a  description  in  rhythmical 
prose  of  Himmel  und  Hoik,  and  has  left  its  mark  on  other 
prose  fragments  of  the  time.  The  fullest  expression,  how- 
ever, of  this  asceticism  is  to  be  found  in  a  long  poetic  ex- 
position of  the  Nicene  Creed,  entitled  Vom  Glauben,  which 
was  written  early  in  the  twelfth  century  by  Hartman,  a  monk 
or  lay  brother  of  some  convent  of  Central  Germany.  Hartman 
rails  with  the  bitterness  of  a  recluse  against  the  secular  spirit 
which,  with  the  rise  of  knighthood,  was  beginning  to  permeate 
all  classes  of  society.  Love,  honour,  beauty,  learning — all  is 
vanity,  he  preaches ;  only  the  solitary  hermit  lives  the  highest 
life,  the  life  of  the  heavenly  seraphim. 

One  of  the  oldest  poems  of  this  period  is  the  Lied  of  Ezzo, 
a  scholastic  of  Bamberg;  it  was  composed  about  1060  or  a 
little  later,  at  the  command  of  Bishop  Gunther  of  Bamberg,  a 
famous  Churchman  who  led  an  ill-starred  pilgrimage  to  the 
Holy  Land,  more  than  thirty  years  before  the  first  crusade. 
Ezzo  sings  in  glowing  verses,  which  might  well  have  served 
to  inspire  those  early  crusaders,  of  the  beginning  of  things,  of 
Christ's  life  and  miracles,  and  of  His  death  upon  the  cross. 
The  Song  of  Songs,  Das  hohe  Lied,  was  paraphrased  and 
commented  upon  in  German  about  1060,  by  Willeram,  an 
abbot  of  Ebersberg  in  Bavaria.  Willeram's  language,  freely 
interspersed,  as  it  is,  with  Latin  words,  has  something  of  the 
beauty  of  Notker's.  His  paraphrase,  and  also  fragmentary 
translations  of  the  Psalms  by  other  hands,  show  that  the  good 
seed  sown  by  Notker  had  not  altogether  fallen  on  barren 
ground. 

Here  and  there,  as  in  two  Biblical  poems,  Judith  and  Die 
drei  Jiinglinge  im  Feuerqfen,  written  in  Central  Germany,  per- 
haps as  early  as  1060,  a  childlike  delight  in  the  narrative 
makes  the  poet  forget  that  he  is  a  monk  :  in  such  poetry 
the  influence  of  the  Spielmann  is  unmistakable.  But  the 
Spielmann  himself,  with  his  popular  lays,  his  jests  and 
love -songs,  was  naturally  discountenanced :  his  place  was 
disputed  by  wandering  monks,  who  had  learned  the  Spiel- 
mann's  art,  but  knew  better  how  to  adapt  it  to  the  religious 
temper  of  the  time.  Until  late  in  the  twelfth  century,  litera- 
ture came  either  directly  from  the  cloisters  or  from  these 


CHAP.  I.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  41 

clerical  Spielleute.  Comparatively  little  secular  influence  is 
to  be  found  in  a  poetic  version  of  Genesis,  the  so-called  Vienna 
Genesis,  by  an  Austrian  monk ;  while  in  an  Exodus,  which 
belongs  to  about  the  same  period,  there  are  occasional  re- 
miniscences of  the  German  national  epic.  These  scanty 
literary  remains,  —  to  which  may  be  added  the  so  -  called 
Merigarto,  a  fragmentary  exposition  of  monkish  geography, 
and  one  or  two  prose  versions  of  the  Physiologus — are  all  that 
can  with  confidence  be  ascribed  to  the  last  half  of  the 
eleventh  and  the  first  quarter  of  the  twelfth  century,  that 
is  to  say,  to  the  reigns  of  Heinrich  IV.  and  Heinrich  V.1 

Although  the  revival  of  medieval  literature  may  thus  be  Linguistic 
traced  back  almost  to  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  chan§e- 
the  linguistic  change  which  divides  Old  High  German  from 
Middle  High  German  was  hardly  accomplished  before  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century;  for  practical  purposes  the 
chronological  boundary  between  the  dialects  may  be  placed 
in  the  year  noo.  The  change  which  about  this  time  spread 
over  the  High  German  dialects,  affected  in  a  marked  degree 
those  flectional  endings  in  which  Old  High  German  was 
particularly  rich ;  the  varied  range  of  vowel  sounds  of  the 
older  language  gave  place,  for  the  most  part,  in  Middle  High 
German  to  e,z  From  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  onwards, 
High  German  is  the  dominant  literary  language  of  the  German 
races,  and  the  literary  renaissance  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  was  essentially  High  German. 

The  history  of  the  twelfth  century  after  1125  has  to  deal 
mainly  with  a  continuation  of  those  beginnings  which  have  just 
been  considered,  but,  with  each  succeeding  decade,  the  literary 
development  was  more  rapid.  Once  more  the  ascetic  spirit, 
this  time  mingled  with  satire,  in  which  one  detects  the  retalia- 
tion of  a  losing  cause,  appears  in  a  poem  entitled  Von  des  todes 
gehugede  ("Remembrance  of  Death"),  by  Heinrich,  a  lay  ca.  1150. 

i  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer,  I.e.;  P.  Piper,  Die  geistliche  Dichtung  des  Mittel- 
alters,  D.N.L.,  3,  i  [1888].  Willeram  has  been  edited  by  J.  Seemiiller  in 
Quellen  und  Forschungen,  24  and  28,  Strassburg,  1877-78  ;  cp.  P.  Piper  in 
D.N.L.,  i,  446  ff.  The  Exodus  will  also  be  found  in  Quellen  und  For- 
schungen,  57,  Strassburg,  1886,  edited  by  E.  Kossmann. 

3  The  plural  of  the  substantive  tac  ("day"),  for  example,  is  in  Old  High 
German,  N.A.  tagd,  G.  tagS,  D.  tagum ;  in  Middle  High  German,  N.A.  (age, 
G.  tage,  D.  tagen.  In  the  same  way,  the  present  of  the  verb  "give"  is  in 
Old  High  German,  gibu,  gibis,  gibit,  gebam&s,  gebet,  gebant ;  in  Middle 
High  German,  gibe,  gibes(f),  gibet,  gebcn,  gebet,  gebent. 


42  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


"  Marien- 
dichtung." 


Mysticism. 


brother  of  the  Austrian  monastery  of  Melk,  who  wrote  about 
the  middle  of  the  century.  Perhaps  by  the  same  poet  is  the 
more  didactic  Priesterkben,  in  which  the  life  of  the  priests  is 
satirised  as  severely  as  that  of  the  laity  was  satirised  in  the 
Remembrance  of  Death. 

The  poetic  worship  of  the  Virgin  opened  up  a  new  source 
of  lyric  inspiration  to  the  German  religious  poet.  Two 
German  sequences  on  this  theme  from  the  monasteries  of 
Muri  in  Switzerland  and  St  Lambrecht  in  Styria  may  even  be 
as  old  as  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  The  "  cult  of 
the  Virgin  "  does  not,  however,  begin  to  assert  itself  in  German 
poetry  before  the  middle  of  the  century  (Arnsteiner  Marien- 
leich,  Melker  Marienlied).  Towards  1170,  a  Bavarian  priest, 
Wernher  by  name,  wrote  three  Liet  von  der  maget  (Lieder 
von  der  Jungfrau),1  which  are  among  the  most  genuinely 
poetic  productions  of  the  time.  The  current  of  lyric  feeling 
held  back  by  asceticism  finds  a  legitimate  outlet  in  this 
"  Mariendichtung  " ;  the  Virgin  becomes  the  object  of  a  lyric 
adoration ;  she  is  the  "  Queen  of  Heaven,"  the  "  Gate  of 
Paradise,"  the  "Star  of  the  Sea."  Here,  too,  the  trend 
towards  mysticism,  the  most  salient  feature  in  the  intellectual 
movement  of  the  twelfth  century,  finds  literary  expression. 

The  theological  mysticism  of  this  age  was  also  the  soil  from 
which  sprang  poems  like  the  Pater  noster,  Von  der  Siebenzahl, 
and  Von  den  vier  Rddern.  The  author  of  the  last-mentioned 
allegory,  in  which  the  "four  wheels"  of  Aminadab's  chariot 
symbolise  Christ's  birth,  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension, 
was  another  Wernher,  a  mystic  of  the  Lower  Rhine.  The 
so-called  Summa  theologies  and  Anegenge  ("Beginning"),  both 
written  probably  in  Austria  not  earlier  than  1170,  draw  their 
imagery  mainly  from  the  writings  of  the  Flemish  mystic  Hugo 
de  St  Victor.  A  fondness  for  mystic  interpretation  is  even 
to  be  found  in  narrative  poems  of  this  epoch.  The  Vorauer 
Genesis,  written  perhaps  as  late  as  1130  in  an  Austrian  mon- 
astery, is  saturated  with  mysticism :  where  the  poet  of  the 
older  Vienna  Genesis  was  content  to  narrate,  the  poet  of  this 
Genesis — who  was  evidently  familiar  with  his  predecessor's 
version — interprets  and  explains.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
a  continuation  of  the  Old  Testament  from  Exodus  to  Joshua, 
preserved  in  the  same  Vorau  MS.,  is  by  the  poet  of  the 
*  Ed.  J.  Feifalik,  Vienna,  1860. 


CHAP.  I.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  43 

Genesis.     The  Leben  Jesu,  Von  den  Gaben  des  heiligen  Geistes, 
Vom  Antichrist,  and  Vom  jiingsten   Gerichte,  again,  by  a  Frau   Frau  Ava. 
Ava,  who  wrote  in  Austria,  are  free  from  scholastic  or  mystic 
influences,  but  do  not  reach  a  very  high  poetic  level.1 

The  Legend  forms  a  kind  of  bridge  between  the  religious  The 
and  secular  poetry  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  it  is  usual  to  re-  Annolied> 
gard  the  Annolied?  written  in  the  district  of  the  Lower  Rhine, 
in  the  first  half  of  the  century,  as  the  earliest  example  of  this 
form  of  poetry  in  Middle  High  German  literature.  Anno  II. 
was  an  Archbishop  of  Cologne  who  played  a  great  role  in 
the  political  life  of  his  time,  fighting  on  the  side  of  reform 
in  ecclesiastical  matters.  Some  twenty  or  thirty  years  after 
his  death  in  1075,  his  biography  was  written  in  Latin,  and 
after  the  lapse  of  another  decade  or  two,  it  was  made  the 
subject  of  a  German  poem  of  876  lines,  by  a  clerical  poet 
of  the  monastery  of  Siegburg.  This  poem,  of  which,  how- 
ever, we  only  possess  a  reprint  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
is  the  so-called  Annolied.  Like  the  Ezzolied,  the  Lay  of 
Anno  goes  back  to  the  Creation,  and  dwells  on  the  Fall, 
the  Redemption,  and  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Then, 
after  describing  the  founding  of  Cologne,  the  poet  passes 
to  the  history  of  its  archbishop  and  sings  his  life,  his 
death,  and  the  miracles  that  happened  at  his  grave.  Al- 
though it  is  difficult  to  justify  the  epithet  "  Pindaric "  which 
Herder  applied  to  the  Annolied,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it 
occasionally  catches  the  tone  of  the  national  epic  of  more  than 
a  hundred  years  later.  It  has  a  vigour  and  sincerity  which 
make  up  for  the  want  of  finer  poetic  graces. 

The  Kaiserchronik?  although  so  rarely  read   nowadays,  is  The 
one  of  the  most  interesting  poetical  productions  of  the  period.   K^"^'k 
In  more  than  18,000  lines  it  unrolls  the  history  of  the  Roman  00.1130-50. 
kings  and  emperors,  "unze  an  diesen  hiutigen  tac"  ("to  the 
present  day  ") — that  is  to  say,  to  the  close  of  the  first  crusade 
under  Konrad    III.   in    1147.      There  is  not  much  literary 
distinction  in  the  endless  confusion  of  legend  and  history,  of 

1  The  majority  of  the  smaller  literary  remains  referred   to    above   will  be 
found  in  Miillenhoff  and  Scherer's  De nkmdler ;   P.   Piper  in  D.N.L.,   3,   i 
(already  referred  to),   gives  extracts  from  the  more  important  of  the  longer 
poems. 

2  Ed.  J.  Kehrein,  Frankfurt,  1865.     Cp.  P.  Piper.  Die  Sf>idmannsdichtung 

2(D.N.L.,  2,  2  [l888]),  iff. 

3  Ed.   E.  Schroder  in  the  Monumenta  Germanics,  Berlin,  1892  ;   P.  Piper, 
in  D.N.L.,  2,  2,  182  ff. 


44  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

romance  and  anecdote,  which  makes  up  this  work,  but  it 
mirrors,  as  no  other  poem  does,  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the 
twelfth  century.  The  Kaiserchronik  was  obviously  inspired 
by  the  Church ;  the  point  of  view  from  which  it  regards  his- 
tory is  a  theological  one;  Christianity  and  heathendom  are 
brought  into  the  sharpest  conflict,  and  the  burning  ecclesias- 
tical questions  of  the  day  have  left  their  marks  upon  it. 
But,  essentially  monastic  as  the  Kaiserchronik  is,  it  throws 
an  important  light  on  the  secular  life  of  its  time;  the  old 
heroes  of  the  Germanic  sagas  find  a  place  in  it,  and  there 
is  more  than  an  echo  in  its  verses  of  the  Crusades  and  the 
rise  of  chivalry ;  one  may  even  find  here  a  foreshadowing  of 
those  ideals  of  "  Frauenminne "  which  were  to  inspire  the 
poets  of  the  following  century.  The  parts  of  the  Kaiser- 
chronik to  which  a  modern  reader  turns  with  most  interest 
are  the  legends  embedded  in  it.  One  of  these,  the  legend  of 
Legends.  Sylvester  (11.  7806  ff.),  is  also  preserved  in  another  form,  and 
that  of  Crescentia  (11.  11352-12808),  poetically  the  most 
interesting  of  all,  has  been  edited  as  a  separate  poem.  An 
extract  has  even  been  made  from  the  Annolied  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Chronicle.  The  Kaiserchronik  represents  the 
work  of  several  hands  :  all  that  can  be  said  with  any  certainty 
of  its  authorship  is  that  it  may  have  been  begun  as  early 
as  1130,  and  was  completed  in  Regensburg  about  the  middle 
of  the  century.  It  is  also  not  improbable  that  the  same 
Konrad  to  whom  we  owe  the  German  Rolandslied  gave  k  its 
final  form.  From  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  onwards, 
the  legends  of  the  saints  gained  rapidly  in  favour  as  subjects 
of  religious  poetry.1  Two  versions — one  in  Latin,  the  other  in 
German — have  been  preserved  of  the  Vision  of  Tunda/us,  one 
of  the  most  interesting  of  these  legends :  it  is  the  story  of 
an  Irish  knight  whose  soul  leaves  his  body  for  three  days 
and  visits  heaven  and  hell. 

With  the  growth  of  the  secular  spirit,  the  Spielleute,  the 

real  bearers  of  the  popular  traditions,  became  once  more  a 

factor  in  literature.     For  the  first  time  since  the  fragmentary 

^oth^r         Hildebrandslied,  we  meet  with  the  direct  literary  expression  of 

ca.  1160.      a  Germanic  saga  in  the  epic  of  Kb'nig  Rother?     The  motive 

1  P.  Piper,  Diegeistliche  Dichtung des  Mittelalters,  z  (D.N.L.  3,  2  [1889]) ; 
E.  Kraus,  Deutsche  Gedichte  des  12.  Jahrhunderts,  Halle,  1894. 

2  Ed.  H.  Ruckert,  Leipzig,  1872,  and  K.  von  Bahder,  Halle,  1884.     Cp.  P. 
Piper,  Die  Spielmannsdichtung,  i  (D.N.L.,  2,  i  [1887]),  75  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  45 

of  Konig  Rother  was  a  favourite  one  with  the  poets  of  the 
latter  half  of  the  twelfth  century ;  it  reappears  in  various  forms 
in  the  literature  of  this  period.  The  young  king  Rother, 
whose  court  is  at  Bari  in  Southern  Italy,  is  recommended  by 
his  councillors  to  wed  the  daughter  of  King  Constantine  of 
Constantinople,  the  only  princess  whom  they  deem  worthy  to 
share  his  throne.  The  sons  of  Duke  Berchter  of  Meran  are 
among  the  envoys  sent  to  Constantinople  to  woo  the  princess. 
Constantine,  however,  throws  them  all  into  prison.  Under 
the  name  of  Dietrich — itself  an  echo  of  the  national  sagas — 
Rother  sets  out  accompanied  by  his  faithful  Berchter,  to  free 
his  vassals  and  win  his  bride.  This  Duke  Berchter,  who,  as 
Berchtung,  plays  an  important  part  in  the  epic  of  Wolfdietrich, 
is,  as  we  shall  see,  a  traditional  example  of  loyalty  (Treue)  in 
the  Germanic  saga.  Rother  obtains  an  interview  with  the  prin- 
cess, fits  a  golden  shoe  upon  her  foot,  and  learns  from  her 
own  lips  that  she  will  wed  none  but  King  Rother.  She 
induces  her  father  to  set  the  imprisoned  vassals  at  liberty  for 
the  space  of  three  days ;  they  are  brought  up  haggard  and 
starving  from  the  dungeon,  to  a  meal  which  the  princess  has 
prepared  for  them.  Rother,  meanwhile,  conceals  himself  be- 
hind a  curtain  and  plays  upon  his  harp  the  "  Leich  "  which  he 
had  played  to  them  when  they  departed  upon  their  mission. 

"'Swilich  ir  begunde  trinkin, 
deme  begundiz  nidir  sinkin, 
daz  er  iz  uffe  den  tisc  goz. 
swilich  ir  abir  sneit  daz  brot, 
deme  intfiel  das  mezses  durch  not. 
sie  wurdin  von  troste  wizzelos. 
wie  manich  sin  truren  virlos ! 
sie  sazin  alle  unde  hortin 
war  daz  spil  hinnen  karte. 
lude  der  eine  leich  klanc  : 
Luppolt  ober  den  tisch  spranch 
unde  der  grave  Erwin, 
sie  heizin  in  willekume  sin, 
den  richen  harfere 
unde  kustin  en  zwaren."  1 


1  "Wer  von  ihnen  (zu)  trinken  begann,  dem  begann  es  nieder  (zu)  sinken, 
dass  er  es  (i.e.,  den  Trank)  auf  den  Tisch  goss.  Wer  von  ihnen  aber  das 
Brot  schnitt,  dem  entfiel  das  Messer  durch  Not  (i.e.,  der  war  durch  innere 
Bewegung  uberwaltigt).  Sie  wurden  von  (dem)  Troste  (den  sie  empfingen), 
verstandlos.  Wie  mancher  sein  Trauern  verier  !  Sie  sassen  alle  und  horten, 
wohin  das  Spiel  weiter  ginge.  Laut  klang  der  einzige  Leich  ;  Luppolt  sprang 
iiber  den  Tisch  und  der  Graf  Erwin,  sie  heissen  ihn,  den  vornehmen  Harfner, 
willkommen  fsein],  und  kiissten  ihn  fiirwahr"  (11.  2513-2527). 


46  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

King  Rother  and  his  men  do  Constantine  a  service  by 
vanquishing  a  heathen  king  who  invades  the  country,  and 
upon  his  departure  from  Constantinople,  Rother  carries  off 
the  princess  in  his  ship.  This  is  obviously  the  end  of  the 
original  story,  but  the  inventive  author  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  spin  out  a  sequel,  in  which  Rother's  queen 
is  brought  back  to  her  parents  by  a  cunning  Spielmann,  and 
Rother  is  obliged  to  go  through  a  fresh  series  of  adventures 
to  win  her  again. 

The  importance  of  Konig  Rother  lies  in  its  relations  to  the 
national  sagas.  The  name  of  the  hero  may  perhaps  be  traced 
to  a  Lombardian  king  Rothari,  who  lived  in  the  seventh 
century,  and  the  story  is  also  to  be  found  in  a  Low  German 
version  preserved  in  the  Icelandic  Thidrekssaga.  But  Konig 
Rother  is,  at  the  same  time,  inspired  by  the  Crusades ;  the 
hero  does  not  seek  his.  bride  in  the  land  of  the  Huns,  as  in 
the  older  form  of  the  saga,  but  in  the  Orient.  The  influence 
of  the  crusade  of  the  Bavarian  Duke  Welf,  in  1101,  is  not  to 
be  mistaken,  and  many  traits  in  the  character  of  Constantine 
suggest  the  Byzantine  Emperor  Alexius.  Konig  Rother  is 
an  excellent  specimen  of  that  spirited,  light-hearted  form  of 
narrative  poetry  which  is  associated  with  the  medieval  Spiel- 
mann. There  is  little  attempt  at  finer  characterisation  in  it, 
but  its  figures  are  not  without  life  :  they  live  by  virtue  of  what 
they  do.  The  whole  poem,  with  its  healthy  if  somewhat  rough 
humour,  is  clearly  composed  with  a  view  to  catching  the  ear 
of  a  popular  audience.  The  author  of  Konig  Rother  seems 
to  have  been  a  Spielmann  of  the  Rhineland,  which  in  literary 
respects  was  the  most  advanced  part  of  Germany  in  the 
twelfth  century,  but  the  poem  itself  was  written  in  Bavaria. 
The  year  1160  may  be  regarded  as  the  approximate  date  of 
its  composition. 

Herzog  Herzog  Ernst l  is  an  epic  of  a  different  class.    It  is  question- 

Ernst,  ca.  able,  indeed,  if  we  have  here  the  work  of  a  Spielmann  at  all. 
The  genial  tone  and  the  intimate  touch  with  the  popular  epic 
traditions,  which  the  poetry  of  the  Spielleute  almost  always 
shows,  are  absent  from  Herzog  Ernst.  The  author  was  more 
probably  some  lay  brother  who  went  farther  afield  than  the 
Christian  legends,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  clerical  poets 
of  the  time  usually  made  the  subjects  of  their  poetry.  Herzog 

1  Edited  by  K.  Bartsch,  Vienna,  1869.     Cp.  P-  Piper,  in  D.N.L.  2,  i,  108  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  47 

Ernst  is  a  remarkable  medley  of  historical  and  legendary  ele- 
ments. Ernst  II.  was  a  Duke  of  Swabia  who  lived  a  stormy 
life  of  constant  rebellion  against  his  stepfather,  King  Konrad 
II. ;  finally  reduced  to  freebooting,  he  met  his  death  in  the 
Black  Forest  in  1030.  The  life  of  this  freebooting  duke 
was  seized  upon  by  the  popular  imagination,  and  he  became 
a  kind  of  Gotz  von  Berlichingen  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Older  historical  elements  were  gradually  woven  into  the  story, 
and  finally  Duke  Ernst  was  associated  with  a  crusade :  to 
put  an  end  to  the  constant  fighting  in  which  he  and  his 
followers  are  involved,  they  set  out  for  the  Holy  Land.  The 
second  and  longer  part  of  the  poem  describes,  somewhat  in 
the  manner  of  the  Alexanderlted,  presently  to  be  discussed, 
the  duke's  adventures  among  men  with  cranes'  heads,  among 
griffins  and  web -footed  people  —  who,  when  it  rains,  have 
simply  to  lie  on  their  backs  and  raise  one  leg  to  obtain 
shelter — among  pigmies  and  giants,  not  to  speak  of  natural 
wonders  such  as  a  magnetic  mountain  and  an  underground 
river.  In  fact,  this  part  of  the  epic  is  a  collection  of 
ideas  then  current  about  the  East,  drawn  from  all  possible 
sources.  Duke  Ernst  ultimately  vanquishes  the  Saracens, 
reaches  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and  then  returns  home  to  be  re- 
conciled to  his  stepfather.  Herzog  Ernst  was  originally  written 
on  the  Lower  Rhine,  and  a  few  fragments  of  this  oldest 
version  have  been  preserved :  it  seems,  however,  at  an  early 
date,  to  have  found  its  way  to  Bavaria,  where  it  was  remodelled 
and  given  its  present  form  about  1180.  A  later  version 
of  the  poem,  also  in  the  Bavarian  dialect,  as  well  as  a  ballad 
of  the  fourteenth  and  a  "  Volksbuch"  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
bear  testimony  to  its  lasting  popularity.  As  literature,  Herzog 
Ernst  is  inferior  to  Konig  Rather  ;  the  personal  note  of  the 
Spielmann,  which  makes  the  latter  epic  so  interesting,  is 
missing.  On  the  other  hand,  although  Herzog  Ernst  shows 
plainly  the  influence  of  the  Crusades,  there  is  in  it  none  of 
that  higher  spirit  of  chivalry  which  was  just  at  this  time 
being  introduced  into  German  literature  from  France.  It  is 
neither  Spielmann's  poetry  nor  Court  epic. 

With  the  rise  of  a  "  Court "  poetry,  and  the  growing 
interest  of  the  higher  ranks  of  society  in  literature,  the  Spiel- 
mann found  himself  at  a  disadvantage.  The  consequence  was 
that,  as  the  literary  horizon  of  the  nation  widened,  the  class 


48  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

of  epic  of  which  Rother  is  the  best  example  degenerated. 
The  Spielmann's  poetry  which  is  to  be  met  with  at  the  close 
of  the  twelfth  century  is  essentially  popular,  appealing  in  the 
first  instance  to  the  crasser  tastes  of  the  multitude.  Three 
poems — Salman  und  Morolf^  Orendel,  and  Oswald — may  be 
taken  as  representative  of  this  class  of  poetry :  each  of  these 
works  treats,  under  a  different  guise,  a  theme  similar  to  that  of 
Konig  Rother. 

Salman  Salman  und  Morolf^  is  the  typical  example  of  the  German 

UMoroif  Spielmann's  epic.  The  saga  itself,  which  goes  back  to  the 
Jewish  traditions  of  Solomon's  wisdom,  is  one  of  the  most 
popular  and  wide  spread  in  Western  literatures ;  in  German 
literature,  it  reappears  later  on,  in  the  form  of  a  ballad,  and 
the  wit  of  Morolf  enjoyed  great  popularity  in  the  age  of  the 
Reformation.  Solomon  or  Salman,  who  is  here  no  longer  the 
Biblical  Solomon,  but  a  Christian  King  of  Jerusalem,  occupies 
the  position  of  the  King  of  Constantinople  in  Rother.  It  is, 
however,  not  Salman's  daughter,  but  his  wife,  who  is  wooed 
and  carried  off  by  the  heathen  king,  Fore.  Salman's  brother 
Morolf — the  best  literary  portrait  of  the  medieval  Spielmann 
that  we  possess — discovers  her,  and  she  is  brought  back  to 
Jerusalem  by  a  strategy  similar  to  that  related  in  the  second 
part  of  Rother.  Once  more,  as  in  the  older  epic,  the  heroine 
is  stolen,  this  time  by  another  heathen  king,  and  it  again  falls 
to  the  quick-witted  Morolf  to  effect  a  rescue. 

Orendel  While  Herzog  Ernst  was  probably,  as  we  have  seen,  an 

^Oswald  example  of  what  the  Spielmann's  epic  became  in  the  hands 
of  a  clerical  poet,  Orendel  and  Oswald*  are  examples  of 
religious  legends  written  by  Spielleute.  Orendel,  in  whose 
name  and  story  there  is  perhaps  a  faint  echo  of  a  Ger- 
manic saga  of  the  sea,  is  in  the  present  poem  a  King  of 
Treves  (Trier),  while  the  lady  whom  he  wooes,  and  for  whose 
sake  he  undertakes  his  adventures,  is  a  Queen  of  Jerusalem. 
The  real  centre,  however,  round  which  the  poem  turns,  is 
the  Holy  Coat :  this  falls  into  Orendel's  hands,  and  he 
brings  it  back  with  him  to  Treves.  In  the  same  way,  King 
Oswald  of  Northumbria  is  a  figure  rather  to  be  associated 
with  legendary  poetry  than  with  the  light  epic  of  the  Spiel- 

1  Ed.  F.  Vogt,  Halle,  1880.     Cp.  Piper,  I.e.,  196  ff. 

2  Orendel,  ed.  A.  Berger,  Bonn,  1888 ;  Oswald,  ed.  L.  Ettmiiller,  Zurich, 
1835.     Cp.  P.  Piper,  I.e.,  146  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  49 

inann.  The  daughter  of  a  fierce  Saracen  king  has  in  this 
poem  to  be  won  by  stealth,  and  a  talking  raven  plays  the 
part  of  messenger. 

Although  the  Spielmann  thus  represented  the  most  ener- 
getic and  healthy  reaction  against  asceticism  which  is  to  be 
found  in  this  age,  he  could  not,  alone  and  unaided,  be  a 
literary  force  of  much  positive  value ;  his  art  was  of  necessity 
undisciplined.  Indigenous  forces  were  clearly  not  sufficient 
to  effect  the  salvation  of  German  literature  in  the  twelfth 
century.  A  fresh  stimulus  had  to  come  from  without,  and 
that  stimulus  was  due  to  chivalry.  To  the  beginnings  of 
the  literature  of  chivalry  we  must  now  turn. 


D 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE    POETRY    OF    KNIGHTHOOD  ;     THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    THE 
MINNESANG. 

"  THE  chief  historical  problem  of  the  middle  ages  in  Europe," 
it  has  been  said,  "was  the  reconciliation  of  the  Germanic 
national  spirit  with  Christianity."  The  conflict  between  these 
two  elements  explains  much  of  the  dualism  of  the  age :  so 
long  as  they  were  at  war  with  each  other,  the  barrier  that 
separated  Church  and  World  was  insurmountable.  The  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  which  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries 
Influence  had  to  offer  was  the  Knight  of  the  Crusades ;  in  him  the 
of  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal  were,  for  a  time  at  least,  recon- 
ciled. The  conception  of  knighthood  or  chivalry  was  of 
Germanic  origin ;  it  was  a  natural  development  of  the  social 
conditions  of  the  Merovingian  and  Carlovingian  periods. 
Chivalry,  however,  first  took  shape  on  Latin  soil,  namely,  in 
Provence,  and  it  developed  most  rapidly  in  Northern  France. 
The  Crusades  brought  the  "  Ritter "  or  knight  to  perfection. 
They  gave  him  that  ideal  calling  for  which  the  early  conflicts 
with  the  Saracens  had  paved  the  way ;  they  raised  him  from 
a  purely  practical  existence  to  a  life  inspired  by  higher  aims  : 
he  became  the  champion  of  an  unworldly  idea.  The  Crusades 
revived  those  old  Germanic  ideals  of  loyalty  and  faithfulness, 
of  manly  bearing  and  respect  for  womanhood,  which,  under  the 
routine  of  an  uninspiring  life  in  the  Roman  atmosphere  of 
Southern  Europe,  were  gradually  being  obliterated.  But, 
most  important  of  all,  they  reconciled  the  ruling  classes  with 
the  Church,  and  the  rise  of  the  orders  of  chivalry  gave  the 
Christian  knight  his  final  stamp. 

The  influence  of  the  Crusades  as  a  factor  in  the  social  and 
intellectual  life  of  Europe  can  hardly  be  overestimated.     The 


CHAP.  II.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  5  I 

ideal  interests  which  they  awakened,  permeated  all  classes  of 
society;  they  raised  men  above  selfish  ambitions  and  united 
all  nations  in  one  great  aim ;  they  gave  Europe  a  community 
not  merely  of  ideas,  but  also  of  social  customs,  such  as  it 
had  not  known  since  the  Roman  empire,  and  was  not  to 
know  again — and  then  only  in  a  limited  degree — until  the 
century  of  Lessing  and  Rousseau.  Again,  through  their 
contact  with  the  East,  the  crusaders  threw  open  a  new  world 
to  the  European  imagination.  The  strange  peoples  and 
customs,  the  unfamiliar  plants  and  animals,  the  rich  textures, 
precious  stones,  and  fabulous  wealth  of  the  Orient  had  a 
peculiar  fascination  for  the  western  mind,  and  a  childish 
delight  in  these  wonders  re-echoes  through  medieval  poetry 
until  long  after  the  classical  renaissance  in  Italy. 

The  Crusades  thus  introduced  a  new  element  into  the 
popular  poetry  of  the  age  :  Konig  Rother  and  Herzog  Ernst 
are,  as  we  have  just  seen,  examples  of  how  the  western  world 
regarded  the  newly  discovered  Orient.  And  in  a  still  more 
marked  degree,  the  Orient  lent  its  colouring  to  the  new  poetry  The  poetry 
of  knighthood,  the  beginnings  of  which  have  now  to  be  con-  °f  k™ght- 
sidered.  The  forms  and  ceremonies  of  knighthood,  just  as 
the  knight  himself,  had  come  to  Germany  from  France ;  it 
was  thus  only  natural  that  the  new  literature  should  also  have 
been  an  importation  from  France.  About  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century  were  written  two  poems,  both  by  clerical  poets, 
both  translations  from  the  French,  which  may  be  regarded  as 
forming  the  starting-point  for  the  German  epic  of  knighthood. 
These  are  the  Alexanderlied  and  the  Rolandslied. 

As  far  back  as  the  third  century,  the  saga  of  Alexander  the  Lamp- 
Great  had  been  made  the  subject  of  a  Greek  romance,  and  r%£xander- 
through  this  romance  it  became  familiar  both  to  the  East  lied,  ca. 
and  to  the  West.     Apart  from  the  purely  anecdotal  literature  "4°- 
which  the  early  crusaders  brought  back  with  them,  the  saga 
of  Alexander  was  the  first  channel  by  which  oriental  influence 
found  its  way  into  western  literature.     In  Europe  its  popu 
larity  was  due  to  two  Latin  versions  which  served  the  French 
poet  Auberi,  or,  as  his  German  translator  calls  him,  Alberich, 
of  Bisenzun  (probably  Briangon),  as  the  basis  of  a  Chanson 
d'Alexandre.     Unfortunately,  only  the  opening  verses  of  this 
French  epic  have  been  preserved,  and  it  is  impossible  to  esti- 
mate with  how  much  originality  Lamprecht,  who  was  a  priest 


52  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

of  the  Rhineland,  translated  it  into  German.  His  Alexander- 
lied,  which  was  originally  written  about  1 1 40,  exists,  moreover, 
in  three  MSS.,  all  of  them  of  a  much  later  date  than  the 
original  poem,  and  differing  materially  from  one  another.1 

In  technique  and  spirit  more  akin  to  the  popular  epic 
than  to  the  Court  epic,  the  Alexanderlied  stands  at  the 
parting  of  the  ways.  Lamprecht's  own  poetic  ideals  were 
naturally  those  of  the  Spielleute,  while  his  French  model  was 
an  epic  of  chivalry.  The  German  poet  compares  one  of  his 
hero's  combats  not  merely  with  those  that  took  place  round 
Troy,  but  with  the  battle  on  the  Wiilpensand  in  the  saga  of 
Gudrun ;  and  Alexander  himself  is  ranged  beside  Hagen, 
Wate,  Herwig,  and  Wolfwin.  Lamprecht's  imagery,  too,  is  that 
of  the  popular  sagas ;  his  battle-scenes — as,  for  instance,  that 
between  Alexander  and  Porus  —  are  wild  and  sanguinary; 
his  heroes  wade  in  blood.  His  pathos  is  of  that  large- 
hearted  kind  to  be  found  in  early  literature.  In  all  this  the 
Alexanderlied  is  primitive,  Germanic.  But  the  conception  of 
life  in  the  poem  is  tempered  by  chivalry ;  the  hero  has  not, 
perhaps,  passed  through  the  school  of  knighthood,  but  he  has 
at  least  mingled  with  knights.  There  is  an  almost  modern 
sentiment  in  the  letter  which  Alexander  sends  to  his  mother 
and  Aristotle,  telling  of  his  adventures  in  wonderful  lands  that 
reach  to  the  end  of  the  world ;  how  in  a  dim  forest  he  finds, 
for  example,  flower-maidens  who  are  born  from  the  cups  of 
the  flowers  and  die  at  the  approach  of  winter.  In  all  this 
there  is  a  gentler  light,  a  more  lyric  beauty,  than  we  are 
accustomed  to  find  in  the  poetry  of  the  early  twelfth  century, 
and  it  is  at  times  difficult  to  believe  that  the  letter  was  written 
by  the  same  poet  who  described  the  sanguinary  encounters  of 
the  earlier  part  of  the  poem. 

Konrad's          The  second  of  the  two  epics  which  stand  at  the  beginning 
Rolands-       of  the  new  epoch,  the  Rolandslicd?  a  version  of  the  Chanson  de 

lied  C3. 

"35-  Roland,  is  farther  removed  from  the  indigenous  "  Spielmanns- 

epik"  and  brings  us  a  step  nearer  to  the  new  poetry  which 
was  to  dominate  Middle  High  German  literature  as  the 
"Court  Epic."  Konrad,  the  author  of  the  Rolandslied,  was 
also,  like  Lamprecht,  a  pfaffe  or  priest.  His  translation  was 

1  Ed.  K.  Kinzel,  Halle,  1884;    P.  Piper,  Die  Spielmannsdichtung,  D.N.L., 
2,  2  [1888],  116  ff. 

2  Ed.   K.    Bartsch,   Leipzig,   1874;    P.    Piper,   Die  Spielmannsdichtung,   2 
D.N.L.,  2,  2  ([1888]),  14  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  53 

undertaken  in  Regensburg,  probably  in  the  early  'thirties,  at 
the  command  of  Heinrich  the  Proud  of  Bavaria,  who  had 
presumably  brought  the  French  manuscript  with  him  from 
France.  Unlike  the  great  Court  epics  of  a  later  date,  the 
German  Rolandslied  suffers  by  comparison  with  its  French 
original.  The  Chanson  de  Roland  is  the  oldest  of  the  "  chan- 
sons de  geste  "  ;  it  describes  Charles  the  Great's  heroic  Spanish 
campaign,  the  death  of  Roland  by  the  treason  of  his  step- 
father Genelon,  and  the  terrible  Nemesis — comparable  to  the 
"  Rache  "  of  the  Nibelungenlied — which  overtakes  the  traitor 
and  his  heathen  allies.  But  all  this  lay  beyond  the  horizon  of 
the  narrow-souled  Bavarian  priest.  The  magnificent  heroism 
and  patriotism  of  the  Chanson  de  Roland  has  to  give  place  to 
religious  fanaticism ;  the  spirit  of  the  original  is  national,  that 
of  the  German  Rolandslied  is  purely  monastic.  Konrad's 
poetic  talents  were  not  much  greater  than  Lamprecht's  had 
been ;  but  his  conversion  of  the  French  assonances  into 
rhymed  couplets  at  least  shows  an  understanding  for  the 
needs  of  German  verse.  Besides  translating  the  Chanson  de 
Roland,  Konrad,  it  may  be  noted,  had  possibly  some  hand  in 
the  production  of  the  Kaiserchronik. 

However  much  of  the  spirit  of  chivalry  there  may  be  in   Eilhart 
the  Alexanderlied  and  the  Rolandslied,  both  works  still  belong  y?^r 
essentially   to  the  category  of  "  Spielmannsepik."      A   more 
immediate  forerunner  of  the  German  Court  poets  is  Eilhart 
von  Oberge,  born  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Hildesheim,  and 
probably  a  vassal  of  Heinrich  the  Lion's.     Eilhart's  Tristrant *    Tristrant, 
is  a  German  version,  not  of  the  French  epic  by  Thomas  de  ^  "7°~ 
Bretagne,  which  served  Gottfried  von  Strassburg  as  model, 
but  of  an   earlier    French   romance   ascribed  to  a  jongleur 
Berol.      Eilhart's   native  language  was  naturally    Low    Ger- 
man, but  he  wrote  his  poem  in  a   Middle  German  dialect, 
presumably   that   it   might   find    a   wider   circle   of  readers. 
According  to  the  accepted  view,  the  date  of  the   poem  is 
approximately  1170-73;   but  it  is  possible  that  it  was  not 
written  until  considerably  later.      Tristrant  is  still  rough  and 
crude  in  workmanship ;  it  has  nothing  of  the  polish  of  the 
later  Court  epic ;  but  if  we  compare  it  with  the  earlier  Spiel- 

1  Ed.  F.  Lichtenstein  (Qvellen  und  Forschungen,  19),  Strassburg,  1877 ;  P. 
Piper,  Die  hofische  Epik,  i  (D.N.L.,  4,  i,  i  [1892]).  13  ft.  Cp.  E.  Schroder's 
paper  in  the  Zeitschrift /.  deutsches  Altertum,  42  (1898),  72  ff. 


54  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Floris  und 
Blanche- 
flur,  ca. 
1170. 


Graf 
Rudolf, 
ca.  1170. 


The 
"  Beast 
Epic." 


Nivardus's 
Ysen- 
grimus, 
1150. 


Heinrich 
der 

Gliche- 
saere.  ca. 
1180. 


mann's  poetry,  we  find  a  different  atmosphere.  Life  is  here 
looked  upon  from  a  new  standpoint.  The  passions  are  no 
longer  simple  as  in  the  old  epic ;  love  merges  into  the  gal- 
lantry of  the  "  Minnedienst."  Eilhart  takes  a  pleasure  in  the 
phrases  of  chivalry,  and  his  light,  conversational  dialogue  is 
foreign  to  older  German  narrative  poetry. 

Another  forerunner  of  Gottfried's  in  this  age  was  an  un- 
known poet  of  the  Lower  Rhine,  who  introduced  to  German 
readers  the  favourite  love-saga  of  the  middle  ages,  Floris  und 
Blancheflur,  a  story  of  two  youthful  lovers  whose  passion  sur- 
mounts all  obstacles  and  ultimately  triumphs.  The  fragments 
of  the  poem  which  have  been  preserved  do  not,  however, 
reveal  much  poetic  charm.  Still  another  knightly  romance  of 
this  period  is  Graf  Rudolf,  a  Thuringian  poem  descriptive  of 
adventures  in  the  East.  The  poet  of  Graf  Rudolf,  which  was 
also  undoubtedly  based  on  a  French  original,  endeavours  to 
make  up  by  means  of  patriotism  for  what  he  lacks  in  literary 
ability.1 

From  France  came  also  another  form  of  romance,  the 
"  Beast  Epic."  As  we  have  seen,  it  was  not  new  to 
Germany,  but  between  the  purely  anecdotal  'Ecbasis  captivi 
of  the  tenth  century  and  the  connected  story  of  the 
twelfth  there  must  obviously  have  been  many  stages  of  de- 
velopment. The  focus  of  that  development  was  Lorraine ; 
here  the  Ecbasis  captivi  was  composed,  and  in  Ghent  was 
written  the  first  continuous  Beast  Romance,  namely,  the 
Latin  Ysengrimus  of  Nivardus  (ii5o).2  Poets  in  Northern 
France  then  took  up  the  theme,  which  had  already  in  the 
hands  of  Nivardus  become  a  vehicle  for  satire,  and  thus 
arose  the  Roman  de  Renart  with  its  many  "  branches."  3  The 
first  German  Beast  Romance  was  founded  upon  the  Roman 
de  Renart,  and  written  about  1 1 80  by  an  Alsatian  monk, 
Heinrich  der  Glichesaere.4  Heinrich's  poem,  of  which  only 
some  700  verses  have  been  preserved,  is  a  dry  narrative 
of  no  great  literary  charm :  it  relates  how  Isengrin  the 
wolf  is  befooled  by  Reinhart  the  fox,  and  how  Reinhart 
cures  the  sick  lion,  into  whose  ear  an  ant  has  crept.  The 
fox  compounds  a  plaster,  to  which  the  other  animals  are 

1  P.  Piper,  Die  Spielmannsdichtung,  2  (D.N.L.,  2,  2  [1888]),  292  ff. 

2  Ed.  E.  Voigt,  Halle,  1884.     Cp.  also  P.  Piper  in  D.N.L.,  2,  i,  237  ff. 

3  Ed.  E.  Martin.     3  vols.,  Strassburg,  1881-87. 

4  Ed.  J.  Grimm,  Leipzig,  1840.     Cp.  D.N.L.,  2,  i,  287  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.          55 

compelled  to  contribute  pieces  of  their  skin ;  the  heat  of 
the  plaster  drives  the  ant  out  of  the  lion's  ear  and  he  regains 
his  hearing.  The  German  poet  shows  some  originality  in  not 
allowing  the  fox's  slyness  to  end  without  further  consequences, 
as  it  does  in  his  French  original ;  Reinhart  turns  traitor  to 
his  lord  and  ultimately  poisons  him. 

In  all  literatures,  the  lyric  is  one  of  the  most  elemental  forms  Beginnings 
of  poetic  expression,  coeval  with,  if  not  still  older  than,  the  Minne- 
embryo  stage  of  the  epic,  but,  owing  to  the  fact  that  it  is  not  sang, 
so  necessary  to  commit  songs  to  writing  as  it  is  in  the  case  of 
narrative  poetry,  the  lyric  does  not  appear  until  a  compara- 
tively late  date  in  literary  history.  It  is,  nevertheless,  strange 
that  in  a  literature  like  that  of  Germany,  where  the  lyric  is 
the  supreme  form  of  poetic  expression,  lyric  poetry  cannot  be 
traced  farther  back — a  few  fragments  in  Old  High  German 
times  excepted  —  than  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century. 
As  early  as  Charles  the  Great's  time  there  was  mention,  it 
will  be  remembered,  of  certain  winileod  or  love  messages, 
although  none  of  these  winileod  have  been  preserved.  But 
now,  on  the  very  threshold  of  the  German  Minnesang, 
we  find,  forming  the  close  of  a  Latin  love-letter  from  a 
lady  to  a  monk,  half-a-dozen  lines  of  simple  charm  which 
might  well  be  analogous  to  the  Carlovingian  winileod. 

"  Du  bist  min,  ih  bin  din  : 
des  solt  du  gewis  sin. 
dii  bist  beslozzen 
in  minem  herzen  : 
verlorn  ist  daz  sliizzelin  :  . 
du  muost  immer  drinne  sin."  J 

Again,  in  the  songs  of  the  Goliards  or  wandering  scholars,  The  Car- 
of  which  a  Bavarian  collection,  the  Carmina  JSurana,2  so 
called  from  the  monastery  of  Benediktbeuern,  dates  from 
the  twelfth  century,  there  is,  besides  witty  satire  and  joviality, 
genuine  lyric  feeling.  This  Goliard  poetry  is  in  Latin,  but 
the  refrains  are  occasionally  in  German,  and  now  and  then 
a  wholly  German  verse  is  to  be  met  with.  With  these  very 

i  "Du  bist  mein,  ich  bin  dein.  Dessen  sollst  du  gewiss  sein.  Du  bist 
eingeschlossen  in  meinem  Herzen ;  verloren  ist  das  Schlusselein ;  du  musst 
immer  darinnen  sein  "  (Des  Minnesangs  Fruhling,  herausg.  von  K.  Lachmann 
und  M.  Haupt,  4th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1888,  3) ;  in  D.N.L.  the  Minnesang  is  edited 
by  F.  Pfaff,  2  vols.,  8,  i  and  2  [1892-95]. 

a  Ed.  J.  A.  Schmeller,  2nd  ed.,  Breslau,  1883. 


56  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Proven9al 
influence. 


Kiiren- 
berg. 


Dietmar 
von  Aist. 


scanty  beginnings,  to  which  might  be  added  the  older  clerical 
poetry  in  honour  of  the  Virgin,  the  first  or  most  nearly 
primitive  stage  in  the  development  of  the  German  lyric  is 
exhausted.  From  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  onwards 
a  new  element,  that  of  chivalry,  made  its  appearance  in  the 
lyric ;  and  in  the  train  of  chivalry  came  the  literary  influence 
and  example  of  Provence.  The  cultivation  of  the  lyric  noiv 
passed  over  into  the  hands  of  the  "  Minnesingers,"  an  aristo- 
cratic class  belonging  mainly  to  the  ranks  of  the  lower  nobility. 
The  fact  that  the  beginnings  of  this  poetry  are  found  in 
Austria  might  imply  that  it  sprang  up  in  comparative  freedom 
from  foreign  influences,  but  it  is  more  likely  that  the  German 
Minnesang  was  from  the  first  influenced  by  the  Provencal 
lyric.  Austria  undoubtedly  came  into  touch  with  the  south 
of  France  by  way  of  Italy  at  an  early  date.  At  the  same 
time,  no  form  of  Middle  High  German  literature,  not  even 
the  national  "  Volksepos,"  retained,  as  we  shall  see,  its  Ger- 
manic characteristics  so  completely  as  the  Minnesang.1 

One  of  the  oldest  of  the  German  Minnesingers  was  an 
Austrian  nobleman,  a  Herr  von  Kiirenberg,  under  whose 
name  a  number  of  strophes  have  been  preserved,  similar  to 
those  which  are  familiar  to  us  from  the  Nibelungenlied?  In 
simple  terse  phrases,  often  in  the  direct  narrative  form  of  the 
epic,  the  "  Kiirenberger "  calls  up  lyric  scenes  and  situations 
of  a  certain  pristine  beauty.  A  lady  stands  upon  her  tower 
and  sighs  for  her  lover ;  she  compares  him,  like  Kriemhild  in 
the  Nibelungenlied,  to  a  falcon  which  flies  away  to  a  foreign 
land ;  the  falcon  returns  with  the  silk  threads  still  upon  his 
talons  and  the  golden  ornaments  on  his  plumage,  and  the 
poem  closes  with  the  line — 

"  got  sende  si  zesamene,     die  gerne  geliebe  wellen  stn."  3 

The  poetry  of  another  Austrian  singer,  Dietmar  von  Aist,4 
shows  the  primitive  Minnesang  in  the  process  of  develop- 

1  Cp.  W.  Wilmanns,  Leben  und  Dichten  Walthers  von  der  Vogelweide, 
Bonn,  1882,  16  ff.;  A.  E.  Schonbach,  Die  Anfdnge  des  deutschen  Minnesangs, 
Graz,  1898,  and  also  papers  by  K.  Burdach  and  R.  M.  Meyer  in  the  Zeitschrift 
f.  deutsches  Altertum,  27  (1883),  343  ff.,  29  (1885),  121  ff..  34  (1890),  146  ff. 

a  Minnesangs  Friihling.  7  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  8,  i,  6  ff.  Cp.  E.  Joseph,  Die 
Friihzeit  des  deutschen  Minnesangs  (Quellen  iind  Forsckungen,  79),  Strassburc;, 
1896. 

3  "  Gott  sende  sie  zusammen,  die  gern  in  Liebe  vereint  sein  mochten." 

*  Minnesangs  Friihling,  32  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  i  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  57 


ment.  Many  of  Dietmar's  verses  are  still  on  the  na'ive  level 
of  the  Kiirenberger's ;  others,  again,  suggest  the  conventional 
Minnesang  of  a  later  date.  Dietmar  knows  no  keener  delight 
than  in  the  passing  of  winter  and  the  return  of  the  birds  and 
flowers ;  here,  as  in  the  Kiirenberger's  poetry,  a  lady  expresses 
yearning  for  her  absent  lover,  the  latter  appearing  once  more 
under  the  guise  of  a  falcon.  One  poem  preserved  under 
Dietmar's  name  is  especially  noteworthy  as  being  the  oldest 
example  in  the  German  Minnesang  of  the  "  Tagelied,"  the 
Provencal  "  alba."  The  parting  of  two  lovers  at  daybreak  was 
one  of  the  favourite  themes  of  the  early  Romance  lyric,  but 
so  simple  are  Dietmar's  lines  that  it  is  hard  to  believe  he  was 
obliged  to  go  to  Provencal  models  for  the  thought  underlying 
them.  A  bird  on  the  linden  awakens  the  lovers ;  the  knight 
must  go — 

"  Diu  frouwe  begunde  weinen. 
• '  du  rttest  hinne  und  last  mich  einen. 

wenne  wilt  du  wider  her? 

owe,  du  fuerest  mine  froide  dar.'"  1 

To  this  early  period  of  the  Minnesang  belong  also  two 
Bavarian  singers,  the  Burggraf  von  Regensburg  and  Meinloh 
von  Sevelingen.2  The  few  strophes  by  these  poets  which  have 
been  preserved  are  written  in  the  half- ballad  style  of  the 
Kiirenberger  and  Dietmar  von  Aist.  Occasionally,  however, 
Meinloh's  verses  show  the  influence  of  the  Minnedienst  of 
a  later  age. 

Not  only  the  beginnings  of  the  Minnesang,  but  also  those 
of  a  closely  allied  form  of  poetry,  the  "  Spruch,"  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  last  quarter  of  the  twelfth  century.  The 
Spruch  in  its  oldest  form  was  a  one-strophe  poem  of  a  satiric 
or  didactic  nature,  and  in  German  literature,  at  least,  belongs 
to  the  more  primitive  literary  forms.  In  the  oldest  collections 
of  the  Minnesang  are  preserved  a  number  of  such  Spriiche 
by  a  Spielmann  called  Herger ;  other  Spriiche,  again,  mention 
as  their  author  "Der  Spervogel";3  in  any  case,  the  older 
poetry  of  this  class  lay  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the 
Spielleute.  Characteristic  of  these  verses  is  the  pessimism 

1  "  Die  Frau  begann  zu  weinen.      '  Du  reitest  bin  und  liisst  mich  allein. 
Wann  willst  du  wieder  her  (i.e.,  wicderkehren)  ?      O  weh,  du  fuhrst  meine 
Freude  fort  (mit  dir). '" 

2  Minnesangs  Friihling,  ir  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  10  ft". 

3  Minnesangs  Friihling,  20  ff.     Cp.  D.N.L. ,  2,  i,  315  ff. 


The  Burg- 
graf von 
Regens- 
burg and 
Meinloh 
von 
Sevelingen. 


"Spruch- 
dichtung." 


Herger  and 
the  Sper- 
vogcl. 


58  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

that  pervades  them ;  the  singer  is  fond  of  looking  back  regret- 
fully upon  his  own  past,  and  seeing  how  much  might  have 
been  otherwise :  there  is  pessimism,  too,  in  the  tone  in  which 
he  sings  the  praises  and  virtues  of  domestic  life.  These 
strophes  form  the  beginning  of  a  class  of  poetry  which  accom- 
panies the  Minnesang  throughout  its  Bliitezeit.  As  knight- 
hood decayed  and  the  middle  class  rose  in  importance,  the 
Spruchdichtung  made  corresponding  advances  in  popular 
favour,  until  in  the  period  of  the  Reformation  it  became 
one  of  the  most  characteristic  forms  of  literary  expression, 
and  a  favourite  weapon  of  offence  and  defence. 


59 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE     NIBE  L  UNGENL I  ED. 

THE  traditional  ballad  poetry  of  the  German  people,  the 
materials  out  of  which  their  national  epic  was  to  be  formed, 
had,  as  we  have  seen,  been  kept  alive  through  the  dark  cen- 
turies by  wandering  Spielleute.  With  the  awakening  of  more 
ideal  interests  under  the  influence  of  the  Crusades  in  the 
twelfth  century,  the  popular  epic  entered,  however,  upon  a  new 
phase  of  development.  The  position  of  the  Spielmann  was 
improved ;  his  work  became  more  literary  in  character,  an 
advance  which  is  to  be  noticed  in  romances  like  Konig  Rather 
and  Herzog  Ernst.  Thus  the  literature  associated  with  the  Develop- 
Spielmann  in  the  Middle  High  German  period  falls  into  two  Jj^1"  °/j 
groups.  On  the  one  hand,  we  have  the  typical  epic  of  the  mann's 
Spielmann,  such  as  the  poems  already  considered  in  the  first 
chapter  of  the  present  part — poems  essentially  popular  in  tone, 
and  depending  for  their  interest  on  rough  anecdote,  comic 
incident,  and  adventure;  on  the  other  hand,  national  epics 
like  the  Nibelungenlied,  Gudrun,  and  the  best  poems  of  the 
Heldenbuch.  Under  the  influence  of  the  serious  literary  tastes 
of  the  aristocratic  classes,  the  traditions  of  Siegfried,  of  Attila 
and  the  Nibelungs,  of  Dietrich  and  Ermanarich,  were  welded 
into  epics  of  primeval  grandeur. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  mythological  saga  of  Sieg- 
fried  and  the  Nibelungs  had,  in  the  age  subsequent  to  the 
Migrations,  been  grafted  upon  the  events  which  culminated  in 
the  annihilation  of  the  Burgundians  by  the  Huns.  Siegfried 
is  the  son  of  a  Prankish  king,  Brunhild  a  Princess  of  Iceland, 
while  Hagen  the  Nibelung  has  become  a  kinsman  of  the 
Burgundian  king  Gunther.  For  a  time  these  epic  traditions  . 
were  only  preserved  in  Saxon  lands ;  then  they  seem  to  have 


60  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

passed  over  to  Austria.  In  Austria,  several  new  personages 
were  added  to  the  saga,  such  as  Dietrich  of  Bern  (Theodorich 
of  Verona) — who  was  not,  of  course,  a  contemporary  of  Attila 
— and  Markgraf  Riideger.  At  a  still  later  date,  Bishop  Pilgrim 
of  Passau — the  same  bishop  who  is  said  to  have  made  a  Latin 
version  of  the  Nibelungen  saga  at  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century — was  introduced  as  an  uncle  of  Kriemhild. 

In  1816,  Karl  Lachmann  published  his  investigations  on 
the  Nibelungenlied,  in  which  he  applied  to  the  German  epic 
the  theory  of  ballad-origin  which  Wolf,  twenty  years  earlier, 
had  applied  to  the  Homeric  epics.  Lachmann  distinguished, 
as  the  original  components  of  the  Nibelungenlied,  twenty 
ballads  which,  according  to  his  view,  had  been  composed 
about  1190,  while  the  epic  itself  had  taken  its  present  form 
about  1210.  The  comparative  study  of  the  epic  since  Lach- 
mann's  time  has  not  weakened  his  theory,  but  it  has  shown 
that  the  development  from  ballad  to  epic  is  by  no  means 
so  simple  or  so  rapid  as  he  supposed.  The  Nibelungen- 
lied  had  undoubtedly  passed  through  a  long  evolution  before 
it  crystallised  into  the  earliest  form  in  which  it  has  been  pre- 
served, and  Lachmann's  attempt  to  discover  separable  lays  or 
ballads  in  the  existing  Middle  High  German  poem  has  thus 
small  positive  value.  Of  the  three  principal  manuscripts  of 
the  poem * — each  of  which  in  turn  has  been  regarded  as  most 
nearly  approaching  the  original  form — none  is  as  old  as  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  earlier  history  of  the  Nibelungenlied,  it  is  tolerably 
certain  that  in  its  latest  stage  the  epic  was  written  in  Austria 
about  1 200  or  a  little  earlier.  The  poet  of  the  Nibelungenlied 
— that  is  to  say,  the  poet  who  gave  the  epic  its  final  form — 
may  possibly  have  been  of  noble  birth,  but  it  is  more  likely  that 
he  was  only  a  Spielmann,2  schooled  in  the  higher  Court  poetry 
and  acquainted  with  courtly  life;  he  was,  above  all,  familiar 

1  A  in  Munich,  the  shortest  MS.,  edited  by  K.  Lachmann,  $th  ed.,  Berlin, 
1878  ;  B  in  St  Gall,  edited  by  K.  Bartsch,  6th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1886 ;  C  in  Donau- 
eschingen,  which  approximates  most  nearly  to  the  Court  epic,  edited  by  E. 
Zarncke,  6th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1887.  A  and  B  are  entitled  Der  Nibelunge  Not;  C, 
Der  Nibelunge  Liet.  Cp.  also  the  edition  in  D.N.L.,  by  P.  Piper,  6,  2  and  3 
[1890-91].  Of  the  many  modern  translations,  that  by  K.  Simrock  (1827  ;  52nd 
ed.,  Stuttgart,  1894)  enjoys  the  widest  popularity.  R.  von  Muth,  Einleitung 
in  das  Nibelungenlied,  Paderborn,  1877 ;  H.  Lichtenberger,  Le  Poeme  et  la 
Ltgende  des  Nibelungcn,  Paris,  1891. 

a  Cp.,  however,  E.  Kettner,  Die ostc rreichischc  Nibclungcndichtung,  Berlin, 
1897,  199  ff. 


CHAP.  III.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         6l 

with  the  revival  of  lyric  poetry,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  began 
on  Austrian  soil  in  the  last  decades  of  the  twelfth  century. 

"  Uns  ist  in  alien  mceren     wunders  vil  geseit 
von  heleden  lobebrcren,     von  grozer  arebeit, 
von  frouden,  hochgeziten,     von  weinen  und  von  klagen, 
von  kiiener  recken  striten,     muget  ir  nu  wunder  hceren  sagen. 

Ez  wuohs  in  Burgonden     ein  vil  edel  magedin, 
daz  in  alien  landen     niht  schceners  mohte  sin, 
Kriemhilt  geheizen  :     si  wart  ein  sccene  wip, 
dar  umbe  muosen  degene     vil  verliesen  den  lip."  1 

In  these  opening  strophes  of  Der  Nibelunge  Not,  the  reader  is  Kriemhild. 
at  once  introduced  to  the  central  figure  of  the  whole  epic,  the 
Burgundian  princess  Kriemhild,  who  lives  at  Worms,  under  the 
protection  of  her  mother  Ute  and  her  three  brothers,  Gunther, 
Gernot,  and  the  youthful  Giselher.  In  the  service  of  these 
Burgundian  kings  are  faithful  vassals  —  Hagen  of  Troneg, 
Dankwart,  Ortwin,  Volker,  and  many  others.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  poem,  Kriemhild  has  a  dream  in  which  a  wild 
falcon,  which  she  had  reared,  is  torn  by  two  eagles  before  her 
eyes.  The  falcon,  her  mother  tells  her,  is  a  noble  husband. 
But  Kriemhild  will  hear  nothing  of  marriage :  she  knows 
too  well 

' '  wie  liebe  mil  leide     ze  jungest  16nen  kan. "  2 

In  this  line  is  concentrated  the  whole  tragedy  of  the  epic. 

In    his    second    "  Aventiure "    the    poet    turns    aside    to  Siegfried, 
tell  of  Sifrit  or  Siegfried.     The  mythological  background  of 
the  Siegfried  saga  has  grown  dim,  giving  place   to  a   more 
definite  historical  setting.     Of  the  young  hero's  youth  in  the 
forest,  of  his  bringing  up  by  the  smith,  we  hear  nothing ;  of 

1  "  Uns  ist  in  alten  Mahren  (Sagen)  viel  Wundersames  gesagt,  von  lobens- 
wcrten  Helden,  von  grosser  Not,  von  Freuden,  Festlichkeiten,  von  Weinen  und 
von  Klagen ;  von  kiihner  Helden  Streiten  konnt  ihr  nun  Wunderbares  sagen 
horen.     Es  wuchs  in  Burgunden  eine  sehr  edle  Jungfrau,  dass  in  alien  L3.n- 
dern  nichts  Schoneres  mochte  sein,  Kriemhild  (war  sie)  geheissen ;  sie  wurde 
ein  schbnes  Weib.    Um  derentwillen  mussten  viele  Helden  das  Leben  verlieren  " 
(i,  i,  2  ;  Text  B).     The  Nibelungen  epic  is  composed,  not  in  the  rhymed  coup- 
lets of  the  great  mass  of  Middle  High  German  narrative  poetry,  but  in  strophes 
of  four  lines — a  metrical  form  which  first  appears  in  the  lyrics  of  the  Kiiren- 
berger.     A  caesura  divides  each  line  into  two,  and  in  each  half  line  there  are 
three  accented  or  stress  syllables,  except  in  the  fourth  line,  where  the  second 
half  contains  four. 

2  "Wie  Freude  mit  Leid  zuletzt  lohnen  kann  "  (i,  17,  3).     Cp.  xxxix,  2378, 
4  (below,  p.  69). 


Siegfried's 
meeting 
with 
Kriemhild. 


62  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

his  fight  with  the  dragon  and  the  winning  of  the  hoard,  little. 
Siegfried  is  the  son  of  a  king  of  the  Netherlands,  a  knight  of 
the  twelfth  century.  He  has  heard  of  the  beauty  of  Kriemhild, 
and  sets  out  for  Worms  accompanied  by  eleven  vassals.  He 
arrives  at  King  Gunther's  Court  as  a  stranger;  Hagen  alone 
guesses  that  he  can  be  no  other  than  Siegfried  who  slew  the 
dragon  and  bathed  himself  invulnerable  in  its  blood.  Kriem- 
hild sees  Siegfried  from  her  window,  and  the  love  she  would 
fain  avoid  takes  possession  of  her  heart.  Meanwhile  a  war 
between  the  Burgundians  and  the  Kings  of  Sachsenland 
and  Denmark  gives  Siegfried  an  opportunity  to  do  knightly 
service  for  his  hosts.  His  victory  is  celebrated  by  a  festival 
which  lasts  twelve  days ;  the  captive  kings  are  set  free,  and 
Siegfried  sees  Kriemhild  for  the  first  time.  Kriemhild's 
beauty  is  described  by  the  poet  in  the  lyric  tones  of  the 
early  German  Minnesang ;  and  here  it  may  be  noted  that 
the  lyric  element  in  the  Nibelungenlied  is  still  naively  Ger- 
manic ;  it  is  but  little  influenced  by  the  more  formal  qualities 
of  the  Romance  lyric.  The  poet,  for  instance,  compares  his 
heroine  coming  from  the  "  kemenate  "  or  women's  apartments 
of  the  castle,  with  the  dawn  : — 

"  Nu  gie  diu  minnecliche     also  der  morgenrot 
tuot  (iz  den  triieben  wolken.     da  sciet  von  maneger  n&t 
der  si  da  truog  in  herzen     und  lange  het  getan  : 
er  sach  die  minneclichen     nu  vil  herlichen  stan." 


And  again  with  the  moon  : — 


"  Sam  der  liehte  mane 
des  scin  so  luterliche 


vor  den  sternen  stat, 
ab  den  wolken  gat."  1 


The  actual  meeting  of  Siegfried  and  Kriemhild  is  described 
with  a  simplicity  and  truth  which  the  phrases  of  chivalry  are 
not  able  to  conceal : — 

"  D6  si  den  hohgemuoten     vor  ir  stende  sach, 
do  erzunde  sich  stn  verwe.     diu  scoene  magt  sprach  : 
'  sit  willekomen,  her  Sivrit,     ein  edel  ritter  guot.' 
d6  wart  im  von  dem  gruoze     vil  wol  gehcehet  der  muot. 


1  "  Nun  ging  die  Liebliche,  wie  das  Morgenrot  aus  den  triiben  Wolken 
thut  (i.e.,  geht).  Da  schied  (i.e.,  wurde  frei)  von  mancher  Not  der,  der  sie 
im  Herzen  [da]  trug  und  (es)  lange  gethan  hatte ;  er  sah  die  Liebliche  nun 
sehr  herrlich  stehen.  .  .  .  Gleichwie  der  liehte  Mond  vor  den  Sternen 
steht,  dessen  Schein  so  hell  von  den  Wolken  herab  geht "  (v,  281 ;  283,  i,  2). 


CHAP,  ill.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         63 

Er  neig  ir  flizecliche  :  bi  der  hende  si  in  vie. 

wie  rehte  minnecliche     er  bi  der  frouwen  gie  ! 

mit  lieben  ougen  blicken     ein  ander  sahen  an 

der  herre  und  ouch  diu  frouwe  :  daz  wart  vil  tougenlich  getan."1 

In  silence  they  enter  the  minster  together,  and  when  mass 
is  over  Kriemhild  thanks  Siegfried  for  the  services  he  has 
done  her  brother.  "  Daz  ist,"  returns  Siegfried,  "  nach  iuwern 
hulden,  min  frou  Kriemhilt,  getan."  2  The  festival  comes  to 
an  end  and  the  guests  prepare  to  depart ;  Siegfried,  however, 
is  persuaded  by  Giselher  to  remain  in  Worms. 

In  the  sixth  "Aventiure"  the  mythical  Siegfried  saga  is  once  Briinhild. 
more  brought  into  the  foreground.  A  report  has  reached  the 
Rhine  of  a  beautiful  princess,  Priinhilt  or  Brunhild  by  name, 
who  lives  in  the  sea-girt  castle  of  Isenstein  in  Iceland.  The 
poet  of  the  Nibelungenlied  has  done  his  best  to  humanise 
the  superhuman  Valkyrie  of  the  old  saga;  but  the  German 
Brunhild  is  still  endowed  with  supernatural  strength.  He  who 
will  win  her  as  his  bride  must  first  prove  his  superiority  to 
her  in  three  feats  :  in  throwing  the  ger  or  spear,  in  hurling  the 
stone,  and  in  leaping ;  and  who  fails  must,  as  in  all  similar 
sagas,  lose  his  head.  Gunther  has  set  his  heart  upon  this 
princess,  and  promises  his  sister  to  Siegfried  if  the  latter  will 
help  him  to  woo  her.  With  a  few  chosen  vassals,  amidst  the 
tears  of  the  women,  they  set  out  for  Isenstein,  sailing  down  the 
Rhine.  Siegfried  stands  at  the  helm,  while  Gunther  himself 
takes  an  oar.  They  reach  the  open  sea,  and  after  twelve  days 
come  within  sight  of  Brunhild's  castle.  With  the  aid  of  the 
"Tarnkappe,"  a  mantle  which  he  had  wrested  from  the  dwarf 
Alberich,  Siegfried  stands  invisible  at  Gunther's  side  and  assists 
him  to  defeat  Brunhild  in  all  three  tests  of  strength ;  whereupon 
she  commands  her  men  to  show  their  allegiance  to  Gunther. 
Meanwhile,  however — in  an  "  Aventiure  "  which  is  obviously 
a  late  addition  to  the  poem — the  Burgundians  are  afraid  of 
betrayal;  as  a  precaution,  Siegfried  returns  to  his  kingdom, 

1  "Da  sie  den  Hochherzigen  vor  sich  stehen  sah,  [da]  entbrannte  seine 
Farbe.     Die  schone  Maid  sprach  :  '  Seid  willkommen,  Herr  Sivrit,  [ein]  edler 
Ritter  gut.'     Da  wurde  ihm  infolge  des  Grusses  der  Mut  hoch  gehoben.     Er 
verneigte  sich  vor  ihr  mit  Aufmerksamkeit ;  sie  nahm  ihn  bei  der  Hand.     Wie 
recht  lieblich  er  bei  der  Jungfrau  ging !     Mit  freundlichen  [Augen-]  Blicken 
sahen  einander  an  der  (edle)  Heir  und  auch  die  Jungfrau :   das  wurde  sehr 

.heimlich  gethan"  (v,  292,  293). 

2  "Das  ist  urn  cure  Huld  zu  erwerben,  meine  Frau  Kriemhild,  gethan" 
(v,  304,  4). 


64  MIDDLE    HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


The  double 
wedding. 


Brunhild 
and  Kriem- 
hild's 
quarrel. 


— where,  not  being  recognised,  he  is  obliged  to  force  an  entrance 
— and  brings  back  with  him  a  thousand  chosen  vassals. 

Siegfried  then  returns  to  Worms  to  announce  the  coming  of 
Gunther  and  his  bride;  Kriemhild  and  her  maidens  make 
preparations  for  their  reception.  The  double  wedding  is  cele- 
brated at  Gunther's  Court ;  Brunhild  becomes  Gunther's  wife, 
Kriemhild  Siegfried's.  But  Brunhild  is  secretly  envious  of 
Kriemhild's  husband;  her  eyes  fill  with  tears.  She  weeps, 
she  says,  to  see  her  husband's  sister  married  to  a  bondsman 
(eigenholt),  for,  when  Brunhild  was  won  at  Isenstein,  Siegfried 
had  given  himself  out  as  Gunther's  vassal.  Gunther  promises 
to  tell  her  at  some  other  time  why  he  has  given  his  sister  to 
Siegfried.  Brunhild  is  not,  however,  so  easily  satisfied,  and  on 
the  night  of  the  wedding,  when  Siegfried  is  not  at  hand  to  help 
him,  she  ties  her  husband  with  her  girdle  and  hangs  him  on 
a  nail  in  the  wall.  On  the  following  night,  Siegfried  in  the 
"  Tarnkappe  "  once  more  takes  Gunther's  part ;  he  overpowers 
Brunhild  after  a  long  struggle  and  leaves  her  to  her  husband, 
not,  however,  before  taking  from  her  as  trophies  her  ring  and 
girdle,  which  he  gives  to  Kriemhild.  Siegfried  then  returns 
with  his  wife  to  the  Netherlands,  where,  amidst  great  ceremony, 
his  father  makes  him  king. 

Once  more,  after  the  lapse  of  ten  years,  Siegfried  and 
Kriemhild  return  to  Worms  ;  Gunther,  at  Briinhild's  suggestion, 
has  invited  them  to  be  present  at  a  festival.  They  accept  the 
invitation,  unsuspecting  the  tragic  fate  that  awaits  them.  One 
afternoon  before  vespers,  as  the  two  queens  are  sitting  side  by 
side,  watching  the  knights  tourneying  in  the  court,  Kriemhild 
is  moved  by  the  sight  of  her  husband,  and  cannot  resist  ex- 
pressing her  admiration  of  him  to  Brunhild  : — 

' '  ich  ban  einen  man, 
daz  elliu  disiu  riche     zuo  sinen  handen  solden  stan." 

To  which  Brunhild  retorts  darkly  : — 

"wie  kunde  daz  gesln  ? 
obe  niemen  lebete     wan  sin  unde  din, 
so  mbhten  im  diu  riche     wol  wesen  undertan  : 
die  wile  lebet  Gunther,     so  kunde'z  nimmer  ergan." 1 


1  "  Ich  habe  einen  (solchen)  Mann,  dass  alle  diese  Lander  in  seiner  Macht 
stehen  sollten  "  (xiv,  815,  3,  4).  "  Wie  konnte  das  sein  ?  Wenn  niemand  lebte 
ausser  ihm  und  dir,  so  konnten  ihm  die  Lander  wohl  unterthan  sein :  so  lange 
Gunther  lebt,  [so]  konnte  es  nimmer  geschehen  "  (xiv,  816) 


CHAP.  III.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         65 

Kriemhild,  still  musing  as  she  watches  Siegfried,  compares 
him  to  the  moon  among  the  stars.  Brunhild  again  insists 
upon  Gunther's  superiority.  The  gentler  Kriemhild,  anxious 
to  avoid  strife,  begs  Brunhild  only  to  believe  that  the  two 
kings  are  peers.  Hereupon  Brunhild  assumes  a  more 
friendly  tone,  but  insidiously  reminds  Kriemhild  that  when 
Gunther  came  to  woo  her,  Siegfried  was  his  vassal.  Kriem- 
hild's  indignation  is  roused  at  being  thus  branded  as  a 
bondsman's  wife,  and  later,  when  the  two  queens  meet  before 
the  minster,  and  Brunhild  commands  her  to  stand  with  the 
words — 

"  ja  sol  vor  kiiniges  wibe     nitnmer  eigendiu  gegan," 
she  throws  in  blind  rage  the  accusation  at  her  sister-in-law — 

"  Kundestu  noch  geswigen,     daz  wsere  dir  guot. 
du  hast  gescendet  selbe     den  dlnen  schcenen  lip  : 
wie  mohte  marines  kebse     immer  werden  kiiniges  wip?"1 

"  It  was  Siegfried,  not  Gunther,  who  made  thee  his  wife  ten 
years  ago."  Brunhild  bursts  into  tears,  and  when  the  evening 
service  in  the  minster  is  over,  she  asks  Kriemhild  for  proofs  of 
her  statement.  Kriemhild  brings  out  the  ring ;  a  ring  might 
have  been  stolen  from  her,  but  when  Brunhild  sees  the  girdle, 
she  weeps  bitterly.  She  now  turns  to  her  husband,  who 
summons  Siegfried.  The  latter  at  first  treats  the  matter 
lightly  as  a  woman's  quarrel,  but,  being  pressed,  he  takes  his 
oath  that  his  wife's  accusation  is  not  true.  Shame,  however, 
still  rankles  in  Brunhild's  heart,  and  she  has  a  ready  ear  for 
the  counsels  of  Hagen,  who  has  resolved,  in  grim  and  un- 
scrupulous loyalty  to  his  king,  that  Siegfried  must  die.  Even 
Gunther  himself  is  won  over  by  Hagen  to  regard  the  incident 
as  a  personal  insult,  and  to  give  his  consent  to  Siegfried's 
murder. 

By  a  ruse  of  Hagen's,  messengers  arrive  in  Worms  pretend-  Hagen's 
ing  to  bring  a  declaration  of  war  from  the  two  Saxon  kings   Plot- 
whom  Siegfried  had  already  defeated.      This  gives  Siegfried 
the  opportunity  of  once  more  offering  his  services  to  Gunther, 
and   Kriemhild  intrusts  him  blindly  to  Hagen's  care.      She 

1  ' '  Wahrlich,  (es)  soil  vor  (des)  Konigs  Weib  nimmer  (cine)  Leibeigene  gehen  " 
(xiv,  838,  4).  "  Kbnntest  du  noch  schweigen,  ware  es  gut  fur  dich.  Du  hast 
selbst  Schande  iiber  deinen  schonen  Leib  gebracht  ;  wie  konnte  je  (eines 
Dienst-)Mannes  Kebsweib  (eines)  Konigs  Weib  werden?"  (xiv,  839,  2-4). 

E 


66 


MIDDLE  HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


The  chase 
in  the  Was- 
kenwald. 


Siegfried's 
death. 


sews  a  cross  upon  his  coat  between  the  shoulders,  above  the 
spot  where  the  leaf  fell  when  he  bathed  in  the  dragon's  blood, 
the  only  part  of  his  body  that  is  vulnerable.  As  soon  as 
Hagen  has  obtained  this  information,  the  pretext  of  war  is  no 
longer  necessary;  other  messengers  arrive  contradicting  the 
declaration,  and  a  hunt  is  proposed  instead.  The  description 
of  the  chase  in  the  Waskenwald  (the  forests  of  the  Vosges),1 
with  Siegfried's  capture  of  the  bear,  is  one  of  the  best  parts 
of  the  whole  epic.  Midday  arrives  and  the  hunters  pause  for 
refreshment,  but  the  wine  has  not  arrived.  Hagen,  however, 
knows  a  spring  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  offers,  by  way  of 
jest,  to  run  a  race  to  it  with  Gunther  and  Siegfried.  The  latter 
is  there  long  before  the  others,  but  he  will  not  drink  before 
King  Gunther.  When  Siegfried's  turn  comes  and  he  bends 
down  to  the  spring,  Hagen  plunges  the  hero's  own  spear  into 
his  back.  Siegfried  springs  up,  but  he  has  no  arms  within 
reach  except  his  shield ;  with  it  he  strikes  at  Hagen,  who 
flees  from  him  as  he  had  never  before  fled  from  any  man. 

"  Die  bluomen  allenthalben     von  bluote  waren  naz. 
d6  rang  er  mit  dem  tode  :     unlange  let  er  daz, 
want  des  todes  wafen     ie  ze  sere  sneit. 
do  mohte  reden  niht  mere     der  recke  kiien'  unt  genieit."2 

When  night  falls  the  body  is  carried  home,  and  at  Hagen's 
command  laid  before  Kriemhild's  door.  Next  morning,  when 
the  minster  bell  rings  to  early  mass,  she  wakens  her  women ; 
her  chamberlain  brings  a  light  and  finds  the  body.  Kriemhild 
at  once  has  a  presentiment  that  it  is  her  husband ;  she  falls 
to  the  ground  with  a  cry  : — 

"  D6  rief  vil  trurecliche     diu  kiineginne  milt : 
'  Owe  mir  mines  leides  !     nu  ist  dir  din  schilt 
mit  swerten  niht  verhouwen  :     du  list  ermorder6t. 
unt  wesse  ich  wer  iz  het  getan,     ich  riete  im  immer  sinen  tot. ' "  3 


1  According  to  the  Donaueschingen  MS.  (C),  the  chase  took  place  in  the 
Odenwald,  a  change  obviously  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the  poet  makes 
the  hunters  cross  the  Rhine. 

2  "Die  Blumen  allenthalben  von  Blute  waren  nass.    Da  rang  er  mit  dem 
Tode  ;   nicht  lange  that  er  das,  weil  des  Todes  Waffe  immer  allzusehr  schnitt. 
Da  konnte  nicht  mehr  reden  der  Recke  kiihn  und  froh  "  (xvi,  998). 

3  "  Da  rief  sehr  traurig  die  Konigin  liebreich  :  'O  weh  mir  (wegen)  meines 
Leides  !     Es  ist  dir  doch  dein  Schild  mit  Schwertern  nicht  verhauen  ;  du  liegst 
ermordet.      Und  wenn  ich  wiisste,  wer  es  gethan  hat,  .wiirde  ich  immer  auf 
seinen  Tod  sinnen ' "  (xvii,  1012,  2-4). 


CHAP.  III.]      MIDDLE    HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.         67 

When  the  body  is  laid  out  in  its  coffin  of  gold  and  silver 
in  the  minster,  the  wound  bleeds  at  Hagen's  approach,  thus 
pointing  to  him  as  the  murderer.  The  first  part  of  the  epic 
virtually  closes  with  Siegfried's  death.  His  father,  Siegmund, 
returns  to  the  Netherlands,  but  Kriemhild  remains  in  Worms. 
A  further  "Aventiure"  relates  how  Kriemhild  is  reconciled 
to  Gunther,  and  how  she  causes  the  Nibelungs'  hoard  to  be 
brought  to  Burgundy.  Hagen,  however,  afraid  of  the  con- 
sequences of  her  generosity,  sinks  the  treasure — and  here  we 
meet  again  with  one  of  the  oldest  elements  of  the  saga — in 
the  Rhine. 

Thirteen  years  after  Siegfried's  death,  King  Etzel  (Attila)  of  Kriemhild 
Hunnenland,   whose  wife,   Helche,  is   dead,  sends   Markgraf  and  Etzel- 
Rudeger   von    Bechlaren   (Pochlarn)  to  Worms,   to   sue  for 
Kriemhild's  hand  in  marriage.     At  first  Kriemhild  will  hear 
nothing  of  Etzel's  suit.     When,  however,  Rudeger  promises 
her  amends  for  every  wrong  that  has  ever  been  done  to  her, 
she  consents,  for  she  sees  in  this  marriage  a  means  of  avenging 
Siegfried's  death.     Kriemhild  journeys  to  Vienna,  where  her 
wedding  is  celebrated  with  great  pomp.      For  thirteen  years 
she  lives   happily   with   Etzel,   in    the    seventh    year    of    her 
marriage  bearing  him  a  son,   Ortlieb,   but  all  this  time   the 
thought  of  vengeance  has  never  left  her.     At  last  the  time 
seems  ripe  to  her.       One  night  she  begs  her  husband   to 
invite   her   kinsfolk    to    a    festival.      Two    Spielleute    act    as 
messengers,  and  have  a  special  injunction  to  see  that  Hagen 
does  not  remain  behind.     The  latter,  wise  and  foreseeing  as 
ever,   guesses  Kriemhild's  intentions;    he  counsels  the   Bur- 
gundians  not  to  accept  the  invitation.     They,  however,  taunt  The 
him  with  cowardice,  and  he  consents  to   accompany  them.   Jth>eIBur°f 
On  the  journey,   Hagen  learns  from  two  water-nixes,  whom  gundians 
he  surprises  bathing  in  the  Danube,  that  none  of  the  Bur-  t?  Etzel>s 
gundians,  with  the  exception  of  the  chaplain,  will  ever  see 
his  home  again.     To  nullify  at  least  part  of  this  prophecy, 
Hagen  throws  the  chaplain  into  the  river  as  they  are  being 
ferried  over;  but  God's  hand  is  stronger  than  Hagen's  will, 
and  the  chaplain   reaches   the   shore  in   safety.       Thus    the 
Burgundians,  or,  as  the  poet  now  prefers  to  call  them,  the 
Nibelungs,   journey  on,   welcomed    and    entertained    on    the 
way  by  Rudeger,  warned  by  Dietrich  von  Bern,  who   rides 
out  to   meet  them,   until   at  last    they   reach   Etzel's   Court. 


68  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

Etzel  has  made  most  hospitable  preparations,  and  Kriemhild 
receives  them,  but  only  for  her  youngest  brother  Giselher 
has  she  a  kiss.  She  makes  no  secret  of  her  hatred  of 
Hagen,  and  asks  him  defiantly  why  he  has  not  brought 
with  him  her  treasure : — 

"  '  Ich  bringe  in  den  tiuvel,'     sprach  aber  Hagene. 
'  ich  ban  an  minem  schilde     so  vil  ze  tragene 
und  an  miner  briinne  :     mtn  helm  der  ist  lieht, 
daz  swert  an  miner  hand,     des  enbringe  ich  iu  nieht. ' " 1 

Kriemhild  invites  her  guests  to  disarm,  but  Hagen  refuses. 
The  clouds  which  hang  over  this  part  of  the  Nibelungenlied 
now  begin  to  lower ;  the  conflict  between  Hagen  and  Kriem- 
hild increases  rapidly  in  tragic  intensity.  Hagen  even  admits 
defiantly  to  her  that  he  was  the  murderer  of  Siegfried, 
and  that  it  is  Siegfried's  sword  which  he  wears  at  his  side. 
Night  comes  down,  and  the  Nibelungs  retire  to  rest  in  a 
hall  that  has  been  prepared  for  them.  Hagen  and  the 
Spielmann,  Volker  von  Alzei,  who,  upon  his  fiddle,  has 
played  his  comrades  to  sleep,  keep  watch  at  the  door  of 
the  hall.  The  Huns  steal  upon  their  sleeping  guests  with 
Kriem-  intent  to  murder  them,  but  when  they  see  Hagen's  helmet 
shining  in  the  night,  they  withdraw.  Next  day  the  guests 
go  to  church,  and  afterwards  a  tournament  takes  place  at 
which  Volker  kills  a  noble  Hun.  Etzel,  who  knows  nothing 
of  Kriemhild's  dark  purposes,  forbids  the  kinsfolk  of  the 
Hun  to  take  blood-revenge.  Kriemhild  begs  Dietrich  von 
Bern  to  help  her  to  carry  out  her  plot,  but  he  refuses;  she 
then  turns  to  Etzel's  brother,  Blcedelin,  who  proves  more 
pliable  to  her  wishes.  With  a  thousand  men,  Bloedelin 
treacherously  attacks  Dankwart  and  his  followers,  but,  after 
great  losses,  Bloedelin  is  slain,  and  Dankwart  makes  his  way  to 
the  hall  where  the  kings  are  eating.  When  Hagen  hears  of 
the  treachery,  he  strikes  off  the  head  of  Kriemhild's  son.  The 
fight  now  becomes  general,  but  through  Dietrich's  intercession, 
Etzel,  Kriemhild,  and  he,  accompanied  by  six  hundred  men, 
are  allowed  to  leave  the  hall ;  all  the  other  Huns  are  slain, 
and  the  Nibelungs  remain  in  possession. 

1  '"Ich  bringe  euch  den  Teufel  (i.e.,  so  gut  wie  nichts),  erwiederte 
Hagen.  '  Ich  babe  an  meinem  Schilde  so  viel  zu  tragen  und  an  meinem 
Brustharnisch  ;  mein  Helm,  der  ist  blank,  das  Schwert  in  meiner  Hand,  das 
bringe  ich  euch  nicht'"  (xxviii,  1744). 


CHAP.  III.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.         69 

Night  has  again  fallen,  and  the  Nibelungs  are  still  masters 
of  the  hall ;  but  a  more  fearful  fate  awaits  them.  Kriemhild 
commands  the  building  to  be  set  on  fire ;  the  heroes  stand 
ranged  along  the  wall  for  protection  from  the  flames,  and 
drink  the  blood  of  the  slain  to  quench  their  thirst.  In 
the  morning  the  fight  begins  anew.  Amidst  the  lamenta- 
tions of  the  Huns,  Riideger  falls,  and  Dietrich  is  at  last 
roused  from  his  inactivity.  He  sends  his  vassal  Hildebrand, 
who  succeeds  in  slaying  Volker,  although  he  loses  all  his  men, 
and  must  himself  flee  from  Hagen.  Only  Gunther  and 
Hagen  are  left  of  the  ill-fated  Nibelungs.  Dietrich  now 
comes  forward  himself;  he  fights  first  with  Hagen  and  then 
with  Gunther,  both  of  whom  he  overcomes  and  makes  pri- 
soners. Once  more  Kriemhild  confronts  Hagen  and  de- 
mands from  him  her  treasure ;  but  he  refuses  to  give  it  up  as 
long  as  any  of  his  masters  live.  Whereupon  Kriemhild  orders 
her  brother  to  be  beheaded,  and  the  head  brought  to  Hagen. 

"  Also  der  ungemuote     sins  herren  houbet  sach, 
wider  Kriemhilde     do  der  recke  sprach  : 
'  du  hast  iz  nach  dim'  willen     z'einem  ende  braht, 
und  ist  ouch  rehte  ergangen     als  ich  mir  hete  gedaht. 

Nu  ist  von  Burgonden     der  edel  kiinec  t6t, 
Giselher  der  junge,     und  ouch  her  Gern6t. 
den  scaz  den  weiz  nu  niemen     wan  got  unde  mfn  : 
der  sol  dich,  valandinne,     immer  wol  verholen  sin.'  "  l 

Kriemhild  draws  Siegfried's  sword  from  its  sheath  and  strikes 
off  Hagen's  head  with  her  own  hand.  Dietrich's  vassal  Hilde- 
brand, who  is  standing  by,  cannot  see  the  brave  Hagen  die  so 
shameful  a  death  unavenged,  and  slays  the  oueen.  And  so 
the  lurid  tragedy  closes  : — 

"  Diu  vil  michel  ere     was  da  gelegen  t&t. 
die  liute  heten  alle    jamer  unde  n6t. 
mit  leide  was  verendet     des  kiiniges  h6hgeztt. 
als  ie  diu  Hebe  leide     z'aller  jungeste  git. 


1  "Als  der  Traurige  seines  Herren  Haupt  sah,  da  sprach  der  Recke  zu 
Kriemhild  :  '  Du  hast  es  nach  deinem  Willen  zu  [einem]  Ende  gebracht,  und 
es  ist  auch  ganz  so  gekommen,  wie  ich  mir  gedacht  hatte.  Nun  ist  von 
Burgunden  der  edle  Konig  tot,  Giselher  der  junge,  und  auch  der  Herr  Gfirnot. 
Den  Schatz  (i.e.,  den  Ort  v:o  der  Schatz  Hegt),  den  weiss  nun  niemand  ausser 
Gott  und  mir ;  der  soil  dir,  Tetifelin,  immer  \vohl  verborgen  sein ' "  (xxxix, 
2370,  2371). 


7<D  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

I'ne  kan  iu  niht  bescheiden,     waz  sider  da  geschach  : 

wan  ritter  unde  vrouwen     weinen  man  da  sach, 

dar  zuo  die  edeln  knehte,     ir  lieben  friunde  t6t. 

hie  hat  daz  moere  ein  ende  :     daz  ist  der  Nibelunge  nfit."1 

The  Nibelungenlied  has  often  been  called  the  Iliad  of  the 
-  Germanic  races,  and  the  comparison,  although  only  a  general 
alepic.  one,  is  suggestive.  The  Nibehmgenlied  might  be  said  to 
represent  at  once  an  earlier  and  a  later  stage  of  epic  de- 
velopment than  the  Homeric  epic.  In  the  great  essentials 
of  story  and  motive,  it  is  certainly  cruder  and  more  primi- 
tive. Feelings  and  passions  are  simple  and  fundamental; 
Siegfried  and  Hagen,  Brunhild  and  Kriemhild,  have  none 
of  the  subtler  attributes  of  Homer's  characters;  they  have 
nothing  of  the  evenly  balanced  intellectuality  of  the  Greeks. 
Their  vices,  and  even  their  virtues,  are  so  unveiled  as  to  be 
almost  repellent ;  their  motives  are  always  naively  transparent. 
In  all  the  finer  qualities,  too,  of  literary  art,  in  beauty  of 
language,  wealth  of  poetic  imagery,  in  balance  and  propor- 
tion, the  Nibehmgenlied  belongs  to  a  comparatively  less  ad- 
vanced stage  of  epic  poetry  than  the  Iliad.  But,  from  another 
point  of  view,  its  development  has  proceeded  farther  than  that 
of  the  Greek  epic.  As  it  stands,  the  German  poem  is  both  a 
Christian  epic  and  an  epic  of  chivalry,  while  the  events  it 
describes  belong  to  an  age  alike  ignorant  of  chivalry  and 
Christianity.  And,  although  these  later  elements  in  the 
German  epic  are  only  loosely  attached  to  it,  they  cannot  be 
regarded  as  unessential  accessories.2  In  the  Iliad,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  no  trace  of  such  a  break  in  the  continuity 
of  tradition ;  Homer  stands — as  far,  at  least,  as  modern  criti- 
cism can  judge — in  a  much  more  intimate  relation  with  his 
subject  than  does  the  poet  of  the  Nibelungenlied. 

The  Nibelungenlied  is  the  representative  national  epic  of 
the  Germans ;  it  is  national  in  the  sense  that  it  mirrors  not 
the  ideas  of  a  single  poet,  but  of  a  whole  race.  Its  theme 
was  a  common  possession  of  that  race ;  its  ideals  of  loyalty, 

1  "  Die  sehr  grosse  Herrlichkeit  lag  da  tot.     Das  ganze  Volk  hatte  Jammer 
und  Not.      Mit  Trauer  war  geendet  des  Konigs  hohes  Fest,  wie  (denn)  die 
Freude  immer  zu  allerlctzt  Trauer  gibt.     Ich  kann  euch  nicht  berichten,  was 
nachher  geschah  ;  nur  (weiss  ich,  dass)  man  Ritter  und  Frauen  weinen  sah,  dazu 
die  edlen  Knappen,  (um)  ihre  lieben  Verwandten  tot  (i.e.,  als  Tote).     Hier  hat 
die  Mahre  ein  Knde  ;  das  ist  der  Nibehmgen  Not"  (xxxix,  2378,  2379). 

2  Cp.  R.  von  Mulh,  I.e.,  344  ff.,  and  A.  E.  Schonbach,  Das  Christentum 
in  der  altdeutschen  Heldendichtung,  Graz,  1897,  3  ff. 


CHAP.  III.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.         /I 

of  nobility,  of  kingly  virtue,  its  scorn  of  treason  and  deceit, 
and  its  firm  faith  in  the  implacableness  of  rightful  vengeance, 
— all  this  is  flesh  and  blood  of  the  Germanic  peoples.  The 
Nibelungenlied  is,  in  such  respects,  primitive,  but  it  is  not  Its  pathos 
barbaric ;  nor  is  it,  as  we  have  seen,  without  pathos  and  lyric 
beauty.  Scenes  such  as  that  where  Giselher  wooes  Riideger's 
daughter  at  Bechlaren,  or  where  Volker  fiddles  his  comrades 
to  sleep,  while  Hagen,  leaning  on  his  shield,  keeps  watch  by 
the  door  of  the  hall,  are  full  of  a  beauty  which  is  unsurpassed 
in  any  later  epic.  Occasionally,  too,  the  sombreness  of  the 
tragedy  is  relieved  by  that  grim  irony  which  is  rarely  wanting 
in  primitive  literature,  and  which  has,  perhaps,  never  found 
finer  expression  than  in  the  passage  where  the  poet  likens 
Volker's  sword  to  a  fiddle-bow  playing  upon  the  steel  of 
the  Huns'  helmets.  And,  like  all  great  national  epics,  the 
Nibelungenlied  is  built  up  upon  a  simple  and  fundamental 
idea,  of  which  the  poet  never  loses  .sight.  This  idea,  the 
mysterious  retribution  which  follows  on  the  heels  of  all 
earthly  happiness,  sounds  like  a  deep  organ  note  through 
the  Nibelungenlied  from  its  opening  words  to  its  close. 
Neither  in  Iliad  nor  Odyssey — nowhere,  indeed,  in  the  epic 
poetry  of  any  people — has  the  tragic  movement  of  events  been 
depicted  upon  such  a  sublime  scale  as  in  the  second  part  of 
the  Nibelungen  Not. 

In  the  principal  MSS.  of  the  Nibelungenlied  the  epic  is  fol-  Diu  Klage. 
lowed  by  a  shorter  poem,  Diu  Klage,1  in  which  the  popular 
craving  for  a  continuation  is  satisfied.  The  Klage  relates 
how  the  survivors  at  Etzel's  court,  at  Bechlaren  and  at 
Worms,  mourned  for  the  fallen  heroes.  This  continuation, 
which  is  not  written  in  the  Nibelungen  strophe,  but  in  rhymed 
couplets,  is,  however,  much  inferior  to  the  epic  itself;  the 
heathen  spirit  of  the  Nibelungenlied  is,  under  the  influence 
of  the  Court  epic,  tempered  by  Christian  sympathy ;  the 
grim  silence  of  the  heroic  world  is  disturbed  bv  psychological 
explanations  and  sentimental  regrets. 

1  Ed.  by  K.  L.ichmann  (with  the  Nibelungen  Not),  also  by  K.  Bartsch, 
Leipzig,  1871;,  and  A.  Edzardi,  Hamburg,  1875.  Cp.  P.  Piper.  Die  Nibel- 
ungen i  (D.N.L.,  6,  2  [1890]).  187  ff. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

GUDRUN  AND  THE  HELDENBUCH. 

BESIDES  the  Nibelungenlied,  there  is  only  one  other  "  Volks- 
epos"  or  epic  based  on  a  national  saga  which  calls  for  a 
Gudrun,  detailed  description — namely,  the  lay  of  Gudrun.1  In  the 
ca.  1215.  form  in  which  Gudrun — or  Kudrun^  as  the  South  Germans 
called  it — has  been  handed  down  to  us,  it,  too,  is  an  Austrian 
epic,  but  the  story  belonged  originally  to  that  Northern  cycle 
of  sagas  to  which  the  Anglo-Saxon  Beowulf  is  related.  On 
the  shores  of  the  Northern  seas,  the  myth  of  the  conflict  of 
light  and  darkness,  of  storm  and  sunshine,  took  a  peculiar 
form  :  here,  the  hero,  the  sun-god,  had  to  cross  stormy  seas 
to  win  his  bride  and  fight  unending  battles  in  order  to 
retain  her.  The  saga  of  Gudrun,  or  rather,  in  its  original 
form,  the  saga  of  Gudrun's  mother,  Hilde,  is  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  the  Germanic  mythology,  Hilde  being  a  Valkyrie, 
and  the  oldest  form  of  the  story  is  to  be  found  in  the  later 
Edda.  It  must,  however,  at  an  early  date,  have  been  known 
to  the  Germans  of  the  Rhineland ;  Lamprecht,  it  will  be 
remembered,  showed  a  familiarity  with  the  saga  in  his 
Alexanderlied. 

Gudrun  is  lacking  in  dramatic  unity.  The  original  story, 
which  in  itself  was  hardly  long  enough  to  form  an  epic,  was 
developed,  not  organically  from  within,  but  by  the  accretion 
of  fresh  materials  from  without.  The  poet,  for  instance,  not 
only  relates  the  wooing  of  Gudrun  and  the  parallel  story  of 
her  mother  Hilde,  but,  following  the  example  of  the  Court 
epics,  goes  back  still  farther  and  describes  the  adventures 
of  the  heroine's  grandfather  Hagen.  This  first  part  of  the 

*  Ed.  by  K.  Bartsch,  4th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1880;  by  E.  Martin,  Halle,  1883. 
In  D.N.L.,  Gudrun  is  again  edited  by  K.  Bartsch,  vol.  6,  i  [1885].  Cp.  A. 
Fe'camp,  Le  Potme  de  Gudrun,  Paris,  1892. 


CHAP.  IV.]      MIDDLE    HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         73 

epic,  which  occupies  four  "  Aventiuren,"  is  poetically  the 
least  important,  and  is  made  up  of  incidents  and  situations  of 
frequent  occurrence  in  the  poetry  of  the  Spielmann.  Hagen,  Hagen. 
son  of  an  Irish  king  Sigebant,  is,  as  a  boy  of  seven,  carried  off 
by  a  griffin  to  a  lonely  island  where  he  finds  three  young 
princesses  in  the  same  position  as  himself;  a  ship  ultimately 
comes  in  sight,  and,  after  many  vicissitudes,  the  four  adven- 
turers reach  Ireland.  Hagen  marries  one  of  the  princesses, 
Hilde  of  India.  The  daughter  of  this  marriage,  likewise 
called  Hilde,  is  very  beautiful ;  her  father  considers  none  Hilde. 
of  her  many  suitors  good  enough  for  her,  and  hangs  their 
envoys.  At  last,  Hetel,  king  of  the  Hegelingen,  a  mighty 
Scandinavian  king,  resolves  to  make  Hilde  his  queen.  Three 
of  his  vassals — the  sweet  singer  Horant,  the  generous  Fruote, 
and  the  grim  "  Recke  "  Wate — set  out,  disguised  as  merchants, 
to  woo  for  their  master  the  king's  daughter  of  Ireland.  With 
the  help  of  costly  wares  and  open-handed  generosity,  they 
ingratiate  themselves  at  Hagen's  Court,  and,  one  evening, 
Horant  succeeds  in  winning  Hilde's  ear  by  his  singing,  which 
is  so  wondrously  sweet  that  all  birds  and  beasts  stop  to  listen 
to  it.  She  invites  him  into  the  "kemenate,"  where  he  has 
an  opportunity  of  pressing  his  master's  suit.  Hilde  is  not 
unwilling  to  marry  Hetel,  and  a  plot  is  arranged  to  carry 
her  off.  The  Court  is  invited  to  visit  the  strangers'  ships 
and  examine  their  wares,  and  while  Hilde  and  her  women 
are  on  board  one  of  the  ships,  the  men  who  have  accom- 
panied her  are  thrown  into  the  sea.  The  ship  is  pushed  off 
from  land,  sails  are  hoisted,  oars  plied,  and  Hilde's  father  is 
left  behind  in  helpless  wrath  upon  the  shore.  The  three 
envoys  reach  Hetel's  land  in  safety  with  the  princess,  but 
on  the  following  morning  Hagen's  ships  are  seen  approach- 
ing the  coast.  A  fierce  battle  takes  place,  in  which  Hagen 
wounds  Hetel,  but  is  himself  wounded  by  Wate.  Hilde  now 
intercedes  as  peacemaker ;  she  begs  Hetel  to  separate  the  com- 
batants, and  Hagen  is  reconciled  to  his  daughter's  marriage. 
Hilde  bears  Hetel  a  son,  Ortwin,  and  a  daughter,  Gudrun,  the 
latter  being  even  more  beautiful  than  Hilde  herself. 

Gudrun's  story  is  now  virtually  a  repetition  of  that  of  her  Gudrun 
mother.     She,  too,  is  jealously  guarded  by  her  father  from  all  ?^d   . 
suitors.      One  of  these,  however,   King  Herwig  of  Seeland, 
has  won  her  heart  by  his  valour,  and  in  a  combat  between 


74  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

Herwig  and  Gudrun's  father,  Gudrun  acts  as  intercessor,  just 
as  Hilde  had  done  in  the  earlier  story.  She  is  then  betrothed 
to  Herwig.  In  the  mean  time,  a  disappointed  suitor,  Siegfried 
of  Morland,  makes  war  upon  Herwig's  kingdom,  and  Hetel 
goes  to  the  assistance  of  his  future  son-in-law.  Hetel's  king- 
dom is  left  unprotected,  and  a  third  suitor,  Hartmut,  with  his 
father,  King  Ludwig  of  Normandy — or  Ormandie,  as  the  poet 
writes — seizes  the  opportunity  to  carry  off  Gudrun  and  her 
maidens.  Hetel  sets  out  in  pursuit,  and  a  terrible  battle 
takes  place  upon  the  island  of  Wiilpensand  near  the  Dutch 
coast.  Gudrun's  father  is  slain  by  King  Ludwig,  and  in  the 
darkness  of  the  night  the  Normans  escape  with  their  captives. 
The  Hegelingen  return  home  in  sorrow,  and  are  obliged  to 
wait  patiently  until  a  new  generation  of  fighters  has  grown  up 
and  they  feel  strong  enough  to  invade  the  Norman's  land. 
Gudrun  Meanwhile  Gudrun  is  brought  to  Normandy,  but  refuses  to 

m  Nor-  marry  Hartmut.  Hereupon  Hartmut's  mother,  Gerlind,  treats 
her  with  all  manner  of  cruelty ;  she  is  set  to  the  most  menial 
tasks.  But  Gudrun  is  resigned  to  her  fate  : — 

"  Do  sprach  diu  maget  edele  :     'swaz  ich  dienen  mac 
mit  willen  und  mit  henden,     naht  unde  tac, 
daz  sol  ich  vliziclichen     tuon  in  alien  stunden, 
sit  mir  min  ungeliicke     bi  minen  friunden  niht  ze  wesene  gunde.'  "  l 

As  years  pass  and  she  still  continues  firm,  a  new  indignity 
is  put  upon  her :  she  is  made  to  wash,  the  clothes  of  her 
masters.  But  even  this  does  not  break  her  proud  spirit : — 

"  ich  sol  niht  haben  vviinne,     ich  wolte  daz  ir  mir  noch  tsetet  leider."2 

And  for  five  years  and  a  half,  day  after  day,  Gudrun  kneels  on 
the  shore,  washing  clothes  in  the  sea.  A  faithful  maid,  Hilde- 
burg,  shares  her  task  with  her. 

Thirteen  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  battle  on  the 
Wiilpensand,  and  the  Hegelingen  have  again  an  army  with 
which  they  can  face  the  Normans.  They  accordingly  set  out 
upon  their  voyage,  and,  after  many  vicissitudes,  reach  the  coast 

1  "Da  sprach  die  edle  Jungfrau  :  'wie  ich  (auch  immer)  dienen  kann  mit 
(gutem)  Willen  und  mit  Handen,  Nacht  und  Tag,  das  will  ich  eifrig  zu  jeder 
Zeit  thun,  seitdem  mir  mein  Ungliick  nicht  gb'nnte   bei  meinen  Verwandten 
zu  sein'  "  (xxi,  1053). 

2  "  Ich  soil  nicht  haben  Wonne ;   ich  wollte,  dass  ihr  mir  noch  grosseres 
Leid  thiitet "  (xxi,  1055,  4). 


CHAP.  IV.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         75 

of  Normandy.     One  day  as  Gudrun  is  at  her  work  on  the 

shore,  an  angel  comes  to  her  in  the  form  of  a  bird  and  tells 

her  of  her  kinsfolk  and  her  coming  rescue.     Next  morning 

she  and  her  companion  Hildeburg  are  washing  barefoot  in  the 

frost  and  snow  as  usual,  when  a  boat  approaches  with  two 

men  in  it.     They  are  Gudrun's  brother  Ortwin  and  her  be-  Ortwin  and 

trothed  Herwig.     They  ask  for  Gudrun,  but  Gudrun  replies  J-^J^j. 

that  she  whom  they  seek  is  long  dead.     Thereupon  the  men  run  on  the 

burst  into  tears  : —  shore- 


"1)6  sprach  der  ftirste  Ilerwic  :     '  ja  riuwet  mich  ir  lip 
uf  mines  lebenes  ende.     diu  maget  was  min  wip.'  .   .   . 

'  Nu  wellet  ir  mich  triegen,'     sprach  diu  arme  meit. 

'von  Herwiges  lode     ist  mir  vil  geseit. 

al  der  werlte  vviinne     die  solte  ich  gewinnen, 

waere  er  inder  lebende  :     so  hete  er  mich  gefiieret  von  hinnen.' 

D6  sprach  der  ritter  edele  :     '  nu  seht  an  mine  hant, 

ob  ir  daz  golt  erkennet :     s6  bin  ich  genant. 

da  mite  ich  wart  gemahelet     Kudrun  ze  minnen. 

sit  ir  dann'  min  frouwe,     s6  fiiere  ich  inch  meinliche  hinnen.' "  l 

Gudrun  joyfully  recognises  the  ring,  and  Herwig  sees  his  ring 
upon  Gudrun's  finger  : — 

"  Er  umbesloz  mit  armen     die  herlichen  meit. 
in  was  ir  beider  maere     Hep  unde  leit. 
er  kuste,  i'n  weiz  wie  ofte,     die  kiiniginne  riche, 
si  und  Hildeburgen     die  ellenden  maget  minnicliclie."3 

Ortwin  and  Herwig  intend  to  make  their  attack  upon  the 
castle  next  day  before  sunrise.  Meanwhile  Gudrun  throws  the 
clothes  of  her  taskmasters  into  the  sea,  and  enters  the  castle 
with  the  dignity  of  a  queen.  She  declares  herself  willing  at 
last  to  be  Hartmut's  bride.  The  Normans  provide  her  and 

i  "  Da  sprach  der  Fiirst  Herwig  :  '  Fiirvvahr,  ich  betraure  ihren  Leib  (i.e.,  sie) 
bis  zu  meines  Lebens  Ende.  Die  Jungfrau  war  mein  Weib  (i.e.,  meine  Braut).' 
.  .  .  '  Nun  wollt  ihr  mich  betriigen,'  sprach  die  arme  Jungfrau.  '  Von  Herwigs 
Tode  ist  mir  viel  gesagt.  Aller  Welt  Wonne,  die  sollte  ich  gewinnen,  ware 
er  irgendwo  am  Leben  ;  dann  hiitte  er  mich  von  hinnen  gefuhrt. '  Da  sprach  der 
Ritter  edel :  '  Nu  seht  auf  meine  Hand,  ob  ihr  das  Gold  erkennt ;  so  (i.e.,  wie 
ihr  soeben  gesagt  habt)  bin  ich  genannt.  Damit  wurde  ich  verlobt,  Kudrun 
zur  Erinnerung.  Wenn  ihr  denn  meine  Herrin  seid,  so  fiihre  ich  euch  mit 
Gewalt  von  hinnen'"  (xxv,  1245,  i,  2  ;  1246,  1247). 

a  "  Er  umschloss  mit  (seinen)  Armen  die  lierrliche  Jungfrau.  Ihnen  war  die 
Kunde,  die  sie  einander  gegeben  hatten,  lieb  und  leid.  Er  kiisste,  ich  weiss 
nicht  wie  oft,  die  edle  Kbnigin,  sie  und  Hildeburg,  die  elende  liebliche  Jung- 
frau" (xxv,  1251). 


76  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


The  defeat 
of  the 
Normans. 


Gudrun 
compared 
with  the 
Nibelung- 
enlied. 


her  maids  with  garments  worthy  of  them,  and  give  them  a 
rich  banquet  in  the  privacy  of  the  "  kemenate."  Early  on 
the  following  morning  the  fight  begins.  In  a  fierce  combat 
Herwig  succeeds  in  slaying  Ludwig;  Hartmut's  life  is  saved 
by  the  intercession  of  his  sister  Ortrun,  who  from  the  first  has 
been  Gudrun's  friend ;  he  is,  however,  made  prisoner.  Wate 
meanwhile  takes  fearful  "  blood-vengeance "  upon  the  rest  of 
the  Normans  :  all  are  slain  except  Ortrun,  whom  Gudrun 
takes  under  her  protection.  Wate  strikes  off  Gerlind's  head 
with  words  of  fiendish  irony  : — 

"kiiniginne  here, 
iu  sol  mln  juncfrouwe     iuwer  kleider  waschen  nimmer  mere."  * 

But  the  tragic  retribution  with  which  Gudrun  closes  is  not 
entirely  unrelieved  as  in  the  Nibelungenlied ;  for  not  only  is 
Gudrun  united  to  Herwig,  but  her  brother  marries  the 
Norman  princess  Ortrun,  and  Hartmut  Hildeburg. 

The  grandeur  and  simplicity  of  the  Nibelungenlied  are  absent 
in  Gudnin ;  it  is  an  epic  of  adventure,  a  Germanic  Odyssey, 
rather  than  a  pure  tragedy  of  revenge.  The  construction,  too, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  looser,  and  the  poetic  kernel  of  the  poem 
more  concealed  by  subsidiary  additions.  Even  the  style  of 
Gudrun  is  unequal ;  as  it  proceeds  the  epic  seems  to  grow 
younger.  The  Hilde  romance  might  be  compared  with  the 
Nibelungenlied ;  the  characters  of  this  part  of  the  poem  are 
drawn  with  bold  and  simple  lines,  and  the  movement  of  events 
offers  no  psychological  complications.  In  the  latter  part  of 
the  epic,  however,  where  Gudrun  herself  is  the  central  figure, 
there  is  a  gentler,  less  primitive  spirit ;  Christianity  has  pene- 
trated more  deeply,  and  the  motives  of  the  characters  are 
prompted  by  the  courtly  ethics  of  the  twelfth  century.  The 
technique,  too,  is  less  naive ;  it  makes  higher  claims  upon  the 
intelligence  of  the  listener  or  reader.  Gudrun  herself  is  more 
finely  delineated  than  the  women  of  the  Nibelungenlied ;  she 
is  more  human  and  lovable.  Indeed,  of  all  the  heroines  6f 
the  popular  epic  Gudrun  shows  most  resemblance  to  the 
characters  of  the  Court  epic.  Of  literary  influences  upon 
Gudrun,  that  of  the  Nibelungenlied  is  naturally  strongest ;  the 
form  of  Gudrun,  its  verse,  which  is  a  finer  development  of  the 

1  "  'Hohe  Kbnigin,  euch  soli  meine  junge  Herrin  cure  Kleider  nimmer- 
mehr  waschen '  "  (xxix,  1522,  3,  4). 


CHAP.  IV.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         77 

Nibelungen  strophe,1  and  even  many  of  its  incidents,  are  obvi- 
ously modelled  on  the  older  epic.  Gudrun  is  supposed  to 
have  been  written  between  1210  and  1215,  but  the  evidence 
on  which  this  belief  is  based  is  slight,  and  the  only  existing 
MS.  dates  from  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Compared  with  the  Nibelungenlied  and  Gudrun^  the  remain- 
ing popular  epics  of  Middle  High  German  literature  are  of 
inferior  interest.  Many  of  them  are  Spielmann's  epics  of  the 
type  of  Konig  Rother,  others,  again,  attempt  to  reconcile  the 
popular  epic  with  the  Court  romance.  The  dominant  influence 
on  all  is  that  of  the  Nibelungenlied ;  without  exception,  how- 
ever, the  romances  of  the  Heldenbuch  2 — the  general  title  under  The  Hel- 
which  these  poems  are  grouped — are  deficient  in  the  unity  of  denbuch- 
plan  and  the  subordination  of  the  action  to  one  ruling  idea, 
which  make  the  Nibelungenlied  so  great.  The  longer  poems 
show  all  the  formlessness  of  the  Court  epic,  without  its 
psychological  delicacy ;  the  crude  fairy  lore  of  the  popular 
imagination,  with  its  dwarfs  and  dragons,  its  giants  and  witch- 
craft, was  obviously  more  to  the  tastes  of  the  audience  to 
which  the  Spielleute  appealed,  than  were  the  literary  graces  of 
Arthurian  romance. 

The  central  figure  of  the  majority  of  these  poems  is  Theo-  Dietrich 
dorich  the  Great,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  is  known  as  Dietrich  von  In> 
of  Bern.  Indeed,  had  the  many  sagas  which  centre  in  Dietrich 
only  met  with  the  same  good  fortune  as  those  of  Siegfried  and 
the  Burgundians,  they  too  might  have  been  combined  to  form 
a  great  national  epic,  and  one  even  more  representative  of  the 
nation's  life  and  thought  than  the  Nibelungenlied.  For  it  was 
Dietrich,  not  Siegfried,  who  was  the  highest  popular  ideal  of  a 
hero  in  the  twelfth  century.  Dietrich  was  more  of  a  king  and 
leader  of  men  than  the  less  responsible,  less  deliberate,  if  more 
daring  and  impulsive,  hero  of  the  Rhineland ;  in  Siegfried 
the  popular  imagination  expressed  its  delight  in  its  heroes,  in 
Dietrich  it  expressed  its  reverential  awe  for  the  strong  man. 

1  The  difference  between  the  strophes  of  the  Nibelungenlied  and  of  Gudrun 
is  that  in  the  latter  the  second  half  of  the  fourth  line  has  five  instead  of  four 
accentuated  syllables ;  the  third  and  fourth  lines  have  also  double  instead  of 
single  rhymes  (i.e.,  kiiniginne,  minne ;  mire,  Ire,  in  place  of  rhymes  such  as 
wip,  lip;  genant,  lant).     On  the  date  of  Gudrun.  cp.  A.  E.  Schonbach,  Das 
Ckristentum  in  der  altdeutschen  Heldendichtung,  Graz,  1897,  156  ff. 

2  Deutsches  Heldenbuch,  herausg.  von  O.  Janicke,  E.  Martin,  A.  Amelung 
and  J.  Zupitza,  5  vols..  Berlin,  1866-73;  selections  edited  by  E.  Henrici  in 
D.N.L.,  7  [1887]. 


78  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Biterolf 

und 

Dietlieb. 


The  Rosen- 
gar  ten. 


Laurin. 


lied. 


Dietrich  appears  in  all  these  sagas  as  wise  and  earnest,  a  man 
who  thinks  well  before  he  acts,  who  is  slow  to  be  moved  to 
wrath,  but  relentless  in  the  execution  of  vengeance.  He 
stands  in  the  background  of  these  stories  of  the  Heldenbuch, 
not  inactively  like  Charles  the  Great  in  the  Carlovingian 
romances,  or  King  Arthur  in  the  Court  epic,  but  as  a  practical 
ideal  of  manhood. 

On  Biterolf  und  Dietlieb,  a  poem  written  in  Austria  at  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  influence  of  the 
Court  epic  is  strong.  Like  an  Arthurian  knight,  Biterolf  has 
sallied  forth  from  his  kingdom  at  Toledo  to  prove  his  mettle 
at  Etzel's  Court.  Meanwhile  his  son  Dietlieb  grows  up  and 
feels  it  his  duty  to  go  out  into  the  world  to  seek  his  father. 
After  many  adventures,  father  and  son  ultimately  stand  face  to 
face  in  single  combat ;  but  a  tragic  close,  like  that  of  the  Hilde- 
brandslied,  is,  thanks  to  Riideger's  timely  intervention,  avoided. 
The  poem  concludes  with  the  description  of  a  great  tourna- 
ment at  Worms,  where  Dietrich  and  Siegfried  meet  in  single 
combat.  Less  polished  than  Biterolf  und  Dietlieb,  the  romance 
of  the  Rosengarten  has  more  of  the  character  of  a  Spielmann's 
epic.  According  to  the  saga,  Kriemhild  possessed  a  famous 
"  rose-garden  "  at  Worms,  which  she  gave  into  the  keeping  of 
her  twelve  greatest  heroes.  In  the  many  conflicts  which  take 
place  round  this  rose-garden,  Dietrich  is  always  the  victor : 
even  Siegfried  is  obliged  to  flee  from  him  under  Kriemhild's 
protection. 

In  another  poem,  Laurin  und  der  kleine  Rosengarten^  one 
of  the  most  charming  of  all  these  medieval  "  Volksmarchen," 
the  rose-garden  of  Worms  is  transferred  to  the  Tyrol,  where 
a  dwarf  Laurin  watches  over  it.  Whoever  breaks  the  silken 
thread  with  which  the  garden  is  surrounded,  must  forfeit 
his  right  foot  and  his  left  hand.  Dietrich  and  Witege  re- 
solve to  undertake  the  adventure.  With  the  help  of  Meister 
Hildebrand  they  overcome  the  dwarf,  and  compel  him  to 
open  up  to  them  his  subterranean  kingdom.  But  Laurin 
is  treacherous  :  he  gives  the  heroes  a  sleeping-draught  and 
makes  them  prisoners.  Thus,  more  dangers  and  adventures 
have  to  be  gone  through  before  Laurin  is  once  more  caught 
and  carried  off  in  triumph  to  Verona.  The  Eckenlied  has  for 


1  The  latest  edition,  Halle,  1897,  is  by  G.  Holz,  who  has  also  edited  the 
Rosengarten,  Halle,  1893. 


CHAP.  IV.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.          79 

its  subject  Dietrich's  conflicts  with  the  giant  Ecke  and  his 
brother  Fasolt,  in  the  Tyrolese  forests.  Later  poems,  again, 
tell  of  his  adventures  with  the  giant  St'genof,  with  a  dwarf 
king  Goldemar?-  and  of  the  deeds  which  he  wrought  in 
the  service  of  Queen  Virginal.  The  ultimate  basis  of  all 
these  giant  stories  is  obviously  the  same  mythological  idea 
which  lies  behind  the  Nibelungenlied  and  Gudrun,  namely, 
the  conflict  of  sunshine  and  storm,  of  light  and  darkness, 
which  made  so  deep  an  impression  on  the  imagination  of  all 
Aryan  peoples.  Dietrich,  no  less  than  Beowulf  or  Siegfried, 
was  originally  a  god  of  light. 

The  noblest  epic  of  the  Dietrich  cycle  is  Alpharts  Tod ;  Alpharts 
no  other  poem  of  this  group  shows  so  much   of  the   tragic    Tod' 
dignity    of  the    Nibelungenlied.      Although    probably    written 
in  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  we  may  think  of 
it  as  an  episode  in  the  great  unwritten  Dietrich  epic.     Alphart 
is   a  young  hero  in  Dietrich's  army  who,  in   spite   of  warn- 
ings, sets  out  from  Verona  to  watch  Ermanarich's  movements. 
After   much   brave   fighting  against  unfair  odds,  he  falls   by 
reason  of  his  own  generosity,  being  killed  by  the  treachery  of 
Witege,  whose  life  he  has  spared.     In  Dietrichs  Flucht^  again,   Dietrich: 
we  have  what  might  have  formed  the  beginning  of  the  Dietrich  Flucht- 
epic.     Unfortunately,  however,  this  beginning  was  made  too 
late.     The  Austrian  Spielmann — he  calls  himself  Heinrich  der 
Vogler — who  wrote  Dietrichs  Flucht  and  the  romance  of  the 
Rabenschlacht  (i.e.,  "  Ravenna-Schlacht "),  which  immediately  The/?a^«- 
follows  it,  lived  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  when  schlacht- 
the  best  period  of  the  popular  epic  was  over.     The  subject 
of  these   epics   is   Dietrich's  feud  with  Ermanarich,  and  the 
treason  of  his  own  vassals  Witege  and  Heime.     Dietrich  is 
compelled  to  seek  help  from  Etzel ;  he  marries  Etzel's  niece, 
and,  with  the  help  of  the  Huns,  makes  repeated  inroads  into 
Ermanarich's  kingdom.     At  the  battle  of  Ravenna,  Dietrich's 
combat  with  the  traitor  Witege  stands  in  the  foreground  of 
events.     The  latter  has  slain  Etzel's  two  young  sons,  and  Diet- 
rich is  in  pursuit  of  him.     They  reach  the  shore  of  the  sea ; 
Witege  seems  lost,  when  suddenly  a  nixe  of  his  own  kin  ap- 
pears and  carries  him  beneath  the  waves,  beyond  the  reach 

1  Goldemar  is  one  of  the  few  poems  of  its  class  to  which  the  author's  name  is 
attached,  Albrecht  von  Kemenaten.  Whether  Albrecht  also  wrote  other 
poems  of  this  group  it  is  impossible  to  determine,  as  only  a  few  short  fragments 
of  Goldemar  have  been  preserved. 


80  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

of  Dietrich's  vengeance.  The  style  of  both  these  poems  is 
wearisome  and  diffuse,  and  shows  all  the  faults  of  the  decay- 
ing epic. 

Besides  the  cycle  of  romances  centring  in  Dietrich,  the 
Heldenbuch  contains  two  stories,  those  of  Ortnit  and  Wolf- 
dietrich, which,  although  not  immediately  connected  with 
the  Dietrich  cycle,  have  certain  points  of  contact  with  it. 
Ortnit.  Ortnit  is  a  characteristic  Spielmann's  romance  of  the  best 
period,  the  earlier  years  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The  hero 
is  King  of  Lamparten  (Lombardy),  and  resides  at  Garten 
(Garda).  Like  King  Rother  and  so  many  other  heroes  of  this 
class  of  epic,  he  resolves  to  marry  a  foreign  princess,  and  with 
the  help  of  his  dwarf,  Alberich,  he  succeeds  in  carrying  her  off. 
His  father-in-law  takes  a  peculiar  revenge  by  sending  a  brood 
of  dragons  into  Ortnit's  country,  Ortnit  himself  being  killed 
by  one  of  these  animals.  The  same  Spielmann  who  wrote 
Wolf-  Ortnit  was  also  probably  the  author  of  the  version  of  Wolf- 

dietrich.  dietrich  which  follows  it  in  the  MSS.  King  Hugdietrich  of 
Constantinople — with  whom  there  may  possibly  be  blended 
the  tradition  of  a  Merovingian  king,  Theodorich — has  two 
sons ;  a  third  is  born  while  he  is  away  from  home,  and  shows 
such  strength  that  the  devil  is  rumoured  to  have  been  his 
father.  Hugdietrich,  whose  suspicions  are  aroused  by  his 
vassal  Sabene,  intrusts  the  faithful  Duke  Berchtung  of  Meran 
with  the  task  of  killing  the  child.  Berchtung  has  not  the 
heart  to  take  its  life,  but  leaves  it  by  a  pool  of  water  in  the 
forest,  in  the  hope  that  it  will  try  to  pluck  the  water-lilies 
growing  in  the  pool  and  fall  in.  But  the  child  plays  happily 
all  day  long,  and  when  the  beasts  of  the  forest  come  down 
to  drink  in  the  moonlight  they  leave  it  unmolested,  a 
group  of  wolves  even  sitting  round  it  in  a  circle.  Next  day 
Berchtung  gives  the  child,  whom  he  calls  Wolfdietrich,  to  a 
peasant  to  bring  up.  The  king  repents,  Wolfdietrich  is  brought 
back,  and  the  evil  councillor  is  banished ;  but  the  king 
has  already  divided  his  kingdom  among  his  sons,  and  Wolf- 
dietrich, who  is  placed  under  Berchtung's  care,  goes  empty- 
handed.  After  Hugdietrich's  death  the  banished  vassal  Sabene 
returns,  and  again  raises  the  rumour  of  Wolfdietrich's  super- 
natural origin.  Hugdietrich's  queen  is  in  consequence  exiled, 
and  finds  refuge  with  Berchtung,  who,  with  his  sixteen  sons, 
stands  on  Wolfdietrich's  side  in  his  feud  with  his  brothers.  A 


CHAP.  IV.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.         8 1 

great  battle  takes  place  in  which  the  brothers  are  defeated  but 
escape,  while  on  Wolfdietrich's  side  none  is  left  but  Wolf- 
dietrich  himself,  Duke  Berchtung,  and  ten  of  his  sons.  The  Duke 
enemy  returns  with  a  fresh  army  and  hems  them  in  ;  the  hero 
himself,  however,  succeeds  in  making  his  escape  to  the  sons. 
Court  of  King  Ortnit,  from  whom  he  hopes  to  gain  assistance. 
But  Ortnit  is  already  dead,  and  it  falls  to  Wolfdietrich 
to  take  up  the  conflict  with  the  dragons.  Here  the  oldest 
version  of  the  story  of  Wolfdietrich  breaks  off.  It  is  told 
with  the  fresh  vigour  which  characterises  the  work  of  the 
earlier  thirteenth  century,  but  in  the  continuation,  written  by 
a  much  later  poet,  the  degeneration  of  the  Spielmann's  art  is 
plainly  visible.  Wolfdietrich  succeeds  in  killing  the  dragons, 
and  becomes  King  of  Lamparten.  Then  he  goes  out  in  quest 
of  his  faithful  vassals.  Berchtung  has  in  the  mean  time  died, 
and  his  ten  sons  are  prisoners  in  Constantinople.  These 
Wolfdietrich  rescues ;  he  takes  revenge  upon  his  enemies,  and 
ultimately  retires  to  a  monastery.  Of  three  other  versions 
of  the  Wolfdietrich  saga  which  have  been  preserved  either 
complete  or  in  fragments,  none  can  be  compared  with  the 
oldest.  In  one  of  these  versions  there  is  a  long  introduction, 
relating  Hugdietrich's  love-adventures  with  Hildburg,  who  is  Hugdiet- 
kept  prisoner  by  her  father  in  a  tower.  To  this  tower  nch" 
Hugdietrich  gains  access  in  the  disguise  of  a  woman. 

The  poetic  kernel  of  the  epics  of  Wolfdietrich  is  the 
relation  of  Berchtung  and  his  sons  to  the  hero.  Clearer  here 
than  ever  shines  the  old  Germanic  conception  of  unswerv- 
ing loyalty.  Berchtung  is  the  incorporation  of  this  loyalty, 
which,  more  than  anything  else,  gives  the  tone  to  the  whole 
"Volksepos."  If  we  look  back  on  the  motives  that  have 
actuated  all  these  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  sagas,  Siegfried 
as  well  as  Hagen,  Kriemhild  as  well  as  Gudrun,  Dietrich,  and 
Berchtung,  it  will  be  found  that  the  first  and  highest  place 
always  belongs  to  diu  triuwe. 


82 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    COURT    EPIC  :     HEINRICH    VON    VELDEKE,    HARTMAN, 
AND    WOLFRAM. 

A  NOTEWORTHY  feature  of  the  two  great  epochs  of  German 
literary  history  is  the  shortness  of  their  duration  :  events 
of  the  first  magnitude  crowded  with  confusing  rapidity 
upon  one  another,  and,  within  the  narrow  limits  of  a  decade, 
masterpieces  were  produced  such  as,  in  other  literatures,  are 
spread  over  generations.  In  Italy,  for  instance,  Dante  was 
dead  before  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio  began  to  write  :  sixty 
years  lay  between  the  Orlando  furioso  and  the  Gerusa- 
lemme  liberata.  But  in  Germany,  all  that  is  greatest  in 
Middle  High  German  poetry  was  written  at  the  turn  of  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  within  the  space  of  thirty 
years ;  when  Goethe  was  born,  the  Bliitezeit  of  New  High 
German  literature  had  only  begun,  when  he  died  it  was 
already  over.  The  shortness,  or  rather  concentration,  of 
the  earlier  period  is  less  easy  to  account  for  than  that  of 
the  modern  classical  period ;  no  law  can  explain  why  great 
popular  epics  like  the  Nibelungenlied  and  Gudrun,  master- 
pieces of  the  Court  epic  like  Parzival  and  Tristan,  and 
the  finest  lyrics  in  the  whole  range  of  medieval  literature, 
should  have  originated,  if  not  simultaneously,  at  least  within 
a  very  few  years  of  one  another.  Compared  with  this,  French 
medieval  literature  seems  to  have  a  long  and  steady  record 
behind  it,  and  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  conditions  in 
Germany  from  the  eleventh  to  the  fourteenth  century  were 
more  unfavourable  to  literary  production  than  in  France. 
The  Court  The  beginnings  of  the  Court  epic  in  Germany  have  already 
epic'  been  traced  in  the  clerical  poetry  of  Lamprecht  and  Konrad, 

and  in  the  half-popular,  half-courtly  Tristrant  of  Eilhart  von 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  83 

Oberge.     The  traditions  of  the   thirteenth  century,  ignoring 
these  beginnings,  point  unanimously  to  Heinrich  von  Veldeke   Heinrich 
as  the  founder  of  this  class  of  epic :  Gottfried  von  Strassburg 
says  of  him — 

' '  er  impete  das  erste  rts 
in  tiutescher  zungen  : 
da  von  sit  este  ersprungen, 
von  den  die  bluomen  kamen."1 

Although  this  may  not  be  strictly  in  accordance  with  facts, 
Heinrich  von  Veldeke  must  at  least  be  recognised  as  the  first 
of  the  Court  poets  to  attain  a  technical  perfection  in  his  art. 

Like  the  unknown  authors  of  Rother  and  Herzog  Ernst, 
Heinrich  von  Veldeke  came  from  the  Lower  Rhineland ;  his 
family  belonged  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Maestricht.  Edu- 
cated probably  for  the  Church,  he  was  not  without  learning, 
and  about  1170  translated  into  German  verses  the  legend  Servatius, 
of  Servatius,  the  patron  saint  of  Maestricht.  Heinrich's  ca-  II7°- 
Servatius'2'  does  not,  however,  rise  above  the  level  of  the 
legendary  poetry  of  the  time.  His  fame  as  an  epic  poet  rests 
exclusively  upon  his  romance  of  ^Eneas,  the  Eneit?  Not  Eneit,  ca. 
Virgil,  but  the  French  Roman  d'Eneas,  is  the  source  of  Hein-  II75'86- 
rich's  epic.  In  the  hands  of  the  French  author,  the  ALneid  had 
already  been  converted  into  an  epic  of  chivalry ;  the  scenery, 
the  costumes,  and  the  whole  atmosphere  of  the  poem  are  of 
the  twelfth  century ;  the  loves  of  ^Eneas  and  Dido,  of  Turnus 
and  Lavinia,  these  are  the  themes  on  which  the  gallantry  of 
the  French  poet  loves  to  linger :  in  other  words,  the  calm, 
classical  spirit  of  Virgil  has  disappeared  behind  the  brilliant 
phantasmagoria  of  medieval  society.  Out  of  this  many-coloured 
French  romance,  Heinrich  von  Veldeke  formed  his  Eneit. 
Like  all  the  Court  poets,  he  is  anything  but  a  faithful  trans- 
lator ;  he  curtails  or  extends  his  original  as  seems  good  to  him, 
and  his  alterations  are  generally  improvements.  The  Germanic 
spirit  shows  itself  in  the  endeavour  to  deepen  the  psychology 
of  the  original,  to  lay  more  emphasis  upon  the  motives 
which  actuate  the  characters.  Most  important  of  all,  Hein- 
rich has  succeeded  in  completely  transplanting  the  French 

__  i  "  Er  impfte  das  erste  Reis  in  deutscher  Zunge ;  davon  entsprangen  daim 
Aste,  von  welchen  die  Blumen  kamen  "  ( Tristan,  4736-39). 

a  Ed.  P.  Piper  in  Die  hofische  Epik,  i  (D.N.L.,  4,'  i  [1892]),  81  ff. 

3  Ed.  O.  Behagel,  Heilbronn,  1882 ;  also  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  241  ff. 


84  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Herbert 

von 

Fritzlar. 


Albrecht 
von  Hal- 
berstadt. 


poem  into  his  own  literature ;  it  has  become  German  — 
German  in  language,  German  in  spirit  and  in  the  music  of 
its  verses. 

The  Eneit  is  a  book  with  a  history.  Before  Heinrich  had 
finished  it  he  gave  it  to  his  patroness,  the  Grafin  of  Cleves, 
who  was  betrothed  to  Landgraf  Ludwig  III.  of  Thuringia. 
At  her  marriage  the  manuscript  passed  into  the  hands  of  a 
Graf  Heinrich,  who  sent  it  to  Thuringia,  where  it  was  re- 
modelled in  the  dialect  of  Central  Germany.  To  the  poet 
himself,  it  was  lost  for  nine  years ;  at  last,  the  great  patron  of 
German  medieval  literature,  Landgraf  Herman  —  then  still 
Saxon  Pfalzgraf — returned  it  to  him  that  he  might  finish  it 
in  Thuringia.  Thus,  although  begun  in  the  early  'seventies, 
the  Eneit  was  not  completed  until  about  1186. 

Towards  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Heinrich 
von  Veldeke's  example  in  acclimatising  the  French  romance 
of  antiquity  found  an  imitator  in  Herbert  von  Fritzlar,  a 
clerical  poet  of  Hesse,  who,  also  under  the  patronage  of 
Landgraf  Herman,  prepared  a  German  version  of  Benoit  de 
Sainte  More's  Roman  de  Troie.  This  French  romance  is 
drawn  in  the  main  from  two  sources,  which  the  middle  ages 
regarded  as  authentic  records  of  the  Trojan  war — that  of  the 
pretended  Phrygian  Dares,  whose  sympathies  were  with  Troy, 
and  who  was  consequently  given  the  preference,  and  that  of 
the  Cretan  Dictys,  who  was  on  the  side  of  the  Greeks.  These 
writings,  together  with  a  short  Latin  epitome  of  the  Iliad, 
formed  the  foundation  for  the  widely  spread  Trojan  saga  of 
pre- Renaissance  literature.  The  Liet  von  Troye^-  is  more 
than  18,000  lines  long,  and  belongs  to  a  much  lower  literary 
plane  than  the  Eneit.  Herbert  has  not  his  predecessor's 
ability  to  maintain  the  reader's  interest.  He  curtails  rather 
than  extends  his  original,  and  what  he  adds  to  it  does  not 
bear  witness  to  much  poetic  originality. 

With  Heinrich  von  Veldeke  and  Herbert  von  Fritzlar  it 
is  usual  to  associate  another  clerical  poet,  Albrecht  von  Hal- 
berstadt,  the  head  of  the  convent  school  in  the  monastery  of 
Jechaburg,  who,  in  1210,  translated  Ovid's  Metamorphoses  into 
German  verse.2  This  earliest  German  Ovid,  of  which,  un- 

P.  Pjper.  Diehofische  Epik,  i  (D.N.L.,  4,  I  [1892]),  282  ff. 
•  in  D.N.L.,  4,  i  [1892],  338  ff. 


2  Ed.  P.  Piper  in 
Halberstadt,  Quedlinburg,  1861. 


Cp.  K.  Bartsch,  Albrecht  von 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  85 

fortunately,  only  a  very  short  fragment  has  been  preserved, 
is  a  direct  translation  from  the  Latin,  not  by  way  of  the 
French.  There  is  thus  more  of  the  spirit  of  antiquity  here 
than  in  either  the  Emit  or  the  Liet  von  Troye,  but  Albrecht 
is  under  the  influence  of  the  literary  models  of  his  time :  in 
translating  the  classical  images,  he  falls  back  with  preference 
upon  the  conventional  phrases  of  the  French  epic.  His 
poetic  talent  was  not  great,  and  his  book — which  also  seems 
to  have  been  inspired  by  the  Landgraf  of  Thuringia — was  not 
very  widely  read.  The  subject,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
popularity  of  Jorg  Wickram's  version  (1545)  of  Albrecht's 
Metamorphosen,  was  more  to  the  taste  of  the  sixteenth  century 
than  of  the  middle  ages. 

To   these   first   Court    epics,    which    are    grouped    round 
Heinrich   von    Veldeke,    belong    also    two    Middle    German 
poems    from    French    sources,   written    about   the    beginning 
of  the   thirteenth    century  —  namely,   Athis  und  Prophilias,  Athis  vnd 
which,    to   judge   from   the   few   fragments   that   have   been  pr°Ph*lias- 
preserved,  was  possibly  the  work  of  a  Spielmann,  and  Era-  Eraclius, 
clius,  a  strange  medley  of  Christian   fervour  and  Epicurean 
worldliness.1 

But  the  master-poets  who  were  to  bring  the  Court  epic  to 
perfection  were  not,  like  most  of  the  poets  hitherto  con- 
sidered, natives  of  North  or  Middle  Germany ;  they  were, 
without  exception,  High  Germans.  The  first  of  these  in  point 
of  time,  Hartman  von  Aue,  was  a  Swabian.  He  belonged  to  Hartman 
the  lower  nobility,  and  stood  in  the  relation  of  "  dienstman  " 
or  vassal  to  a  noble  Herr  von  Aue,  whose  castle  was  probably  1215. 
at  what  is  now  Obernau,  near  Rotenburg  on  the  Neckar. 
But  the  localisation  of  Aue,  like  most  facts  in  Hartman's  life, 
is  largely  a  matter  of  conjecture.  Before  going  out  into  the 
world  he  received  a  scholarly  education  in  some  monastery. 
An  unhappy  love  affair  seems  to  have  thrown  a  shadow 
over  his  life,  and  the  death  of  his  liege  lord  was  another 
sorrow  to  him.  These  were  perhaps  the  reasons  for  his  ab- 
juring his  worldly  life  and  joining  the  unfortunate  crusade  of 
1196-97.  He  may  have  been  born  about  1170;  in  1210, 

1  Ed.  W.  Grimm,  Berlin,  1846,  and  H.  Graef  (Quellen  vnd  Forschungtn,  50), 
Strassburg,  1883.  Heinrich  von  Veldeke's  influence  is  also  noticeable  in  the 
romance  of  Moriz  von  Craon,  edited  by  E.  Schroder  in  Zwei  altdeutsche 
Rit/ermceren,  Berlin,  1894.  Cp.  D.N.L.,  2,  2,  301  ff. 


86 


MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Hartman's 
two  Buch- 
lein. 


Arthurian 
romance. 


Gottfried  von  Strassburg  speaks  of  him  as  a  living  contem- 
porary, but  he  was  dead  before  I22O.1 

To  the  earlier  years  of  Hartman's  life  belong  his  lyrics,  which 
will  be  discussed  later,  and  the  first  of  two  longer  poems  of  the 
class  known  at  that  time  as  Biichlein,  or  "  love  epistles."  In 
his  first  Biichlein  or  Klage,  the  poet  pours  out  his  sorrows  at 
his  lady's  feet,  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  body  and 
heart,  modelled  on  the  dialogues  of  "Soul  and  Body,"  which 
are  to  be  met  with  in  the  early  stages  of  all  Western  litera- 
tures. Hartman's  authorship  of  the  second  "  kleinez  biiechel," 
the  tone  of  which  is  less  restrained  than  that  of  the  first,  is 
doubtful ;  but  if  not  by  Hartman,  it  is  at  least  by  a  poet 
who  was  influenced  by  him.  Of  his  four  epic  poems,  Erec 
is  the  earliest,  and  may  have  been  written  in  1191  or  1192; 
Iwein,  on  the  other  hand,  is  much  riper,  and  was  probably 
composed  at  least  ten  years  later;  between  Erec  and  Iwein 
falls  Gregorius.  Hartman's  fourth  poem,  Der  arme  Hein- 
rich,  may  possibly  have  been  written  before  Iwein,  but  there 
is  more  likelihood  that  it  was  his  last  work. 

Erec  is  a  landmark  of  importance,  for,  apart  from  the 
crude  Tristrant  of  Eilhart,  it  is  the  first  Arthurian  romance 
in  German  literature.  The  historical  origin  of  the  legends 
which  centre  in  King  Artus  or  Arthur  has  been  traced 
to  the  conflicts  between  Kelt  and  Anglo-Saxon  in  the  sixth 
century ;  other  authorities,  again,  incline  to  the  view  that 
these  legends  originated  in  the  remote  past  of  the  Kelts 
of  Brittany.  However  this  may  be,  the  Arthurian  legend,  as 
it  concerns  us  here,  first  appears  in  a  romantic  Latin  history 
of  the  twelfth  century  by  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth.  This  history 
was  translated  into  French  by  Wace,  and  provided  Crestien  de 
Troyes  with  the  materials  for  his  epics.  With  Crestien,  the 
Arthurian  legend  became  the  chosen  theme  for  the  poetry  of 
chivalry :  in  his  hands  all  that  was  Keltic  or  purely  national 
was  stripped  off;  King  Arthur  himself,  instead  of  being  an 
active  champion  of  knighthood,  became,  like  Charles  the  Great 
in  the  Carlovingian  sagas,  a  figure  in  the  background,  a  calm 
ideal  of  the  highest  knightly  life.  About  King  Arthur  gathered 

1  A  serviceable  edition  of  Hartman's  works  is  that  by  F.  Bech,  3  vols.,  3rd 
ed.,  Leipzig;  1891-93.  Selections,  edited  by  P.  Piper,  will  be  found  in  D.N.L., 
4,  2  [1893],  i  ff.  Cp.  A.  E.  Schonbach,  Ober  Hartmann  von  Aue,  Graz,  1894, 
and  T.  Piquet,  £tude  sur  Hartmann  dAtie,  Paris,  1898. 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  87 

the  young  heroes  of  the  Round  Table,  each  of  whom  became 
in  his  own  way  the  centre  of  a  story  and  an  exemplar  of 
chivalry.  The  Arthurian  legend,  although  thus  Keltic  in  its 
origins,  was  identified  with  the  life  and  ideals  of  the  twelfth 
century ;  as  a  channel  of  literary  expression  it  was  preferred 
to  the  sagas  of  antiquity,  of  Charles  the  Great,  or  even  to  the 
legends  that  sprang  up  round  events  of  the  more  immediate 
past ;  and  in  Germany,  to  a  greater  degree  than  in  France,  it 
served  for  the  highest  flights  of  medieval  poetry. 

To  Crestien  de  Troyes,  Hartman  is  indebted  for  the  origi-  Erec. 
nals  of  his  two  Arthurian  epics,  Erec  and  Iwein}-  Erec,  a 
young  knight  of  the  Round  Table,  wins  the  hand  of  Enite, 
the  daughter  of  a  poor  Graf,  and  in  his  excess  of  love  for  her 
neglects  his  duties  as  a  knight.  His  friends  blame  Enite  for 
her  husband's  sloth,  and  she  is  filled  with  sorrow.  Erec,  acci- 
dentally overhearing  her  plaints,  bids  her  prepare  at  once  for 
a  journey ;  he  arms  himself,  and  both  set  out  into  the  world, 
Enite,  whom  he  has  forbidden  to  speak  a  word,  riding  before 
him  like  a  common  squire.  In  the  adventures  which  befall 
them,  Enite,  by  warning  her  husband  and  thus  disobeying  his 
commands,  repeatedly  saves  his  life,  until  at  last,  after  the 
most  terrible  fight  of  all,  he  falls  insensible  and  his  wife  be- 
lieves him  dead.  In  heartrending  tones  she  pours  out  her 
grief  to  the  forest,  and  is  about  to  slay  herself  with  Erec's 
sword,  when  a  stranger  finds  her  and  takes  her,  and  her 
dead  husband  with  her,  to  his  castle.  It  soon  appears,  how- 
ever, that  the  stranger's  motives  are  not  of  the  purest : 
Enite's  cries  awaken  her  husband  from  his  swoon ;  he  slays 
her  persecutor  and  rescues  her.  This  is,  properly  speaking, 
the  end  of  the  story ;  but  the  poet  adds  still  another  adven- 
ture, in  which  Erec  overcomes  a  knight,  whose  wife  has  made 
him  promise  never  to  leave  her  side  until  he  is  vanquished  in 
single  combat. 

Although  adhering  more  closely  to  its  French  original 
than  Erec,  Hartman's  second  romance  is  more  beautiful 
in  its  language,  more  harmonious  in  style  and  form,  and 
finer  in  its  psychology ;  indeed,  Iwein  is  the  most  perfectly 
proportioned  of  all  the  German  Arthurian  epics.  The  hero's 
spirit  of  adventure  is  stimulated  by  a  story  which  one  of  his 

1  Erec,  ed.  M.  Haupt,  and  ed.,  Leipzig,  1871 ;  Iwein,  ed.  E.  Henrici,  Halle, 
1891-93- 


88  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

k  fellow-knights  relates  of  a  magic  spring  in  the  heart  of  a  great 
forest.  If  any  one  pour  water  from  this  spring  upon  a  stone 
that  lies  near  it,  a  storm  arises,  and  the  lord  of  the  spring 
appears  to  challenge  the  intruder.  Artus  proposes  to  under- 
take the  adventure  after  the  lapse  of  a  fortnight,  but  Iwein 
secretly  resolves  to  try  his  fortune  beforehand.  He  success- 
fully overcomes  and  slays  the  keeper  of  the  spring,  but  finds 
himself  a  prisoner  between  two  portcullises  in  the  latter's 
castle.  From  this  position  he  escapes  with  the  aid  of  the 
queen's  maid,  Lunete,  who  endows  him  with  invisibility ;  he 
loves  and  wins  the  love  of  Laudine,  the  widowed  queen,  and 
when  Artus  and  his  Court  arrive  at  the  spring,  he  is  the 
knight  who  successfully  defends  it.  He  entertains  the  Court 
in  the  castle,  and  when  they  depart,  Gawain  warns  him  not 
to  forget,  like  Erec,  the  duties  of  knighthood  in  his  love 
for  Laudine.  But  Iwein  is  a  hero  of  another  kind  ;  he  leaves 
his  wife,  and,  in  his  quest  of  adventures,  forgets  his  vow  to 
return  to  her  at  the  end  of  a  year.  When  Lunete,  who  has 
been  sent  by  Laudine  in  quest  of  him,  reminds  him  of  his  vow, 
he  is  so  overwhelmed  that  he  goes  mad  and  lives  for  a  time 
naked  in  the  forest.  After  he  has  been  restored  to  health,  he 
has  still  other  trials  and  adventures  to  go  through — amongst 
them,  one  in  which  he  rescues  a  lion,  and  the  last  and  hardest 
of  all  in  which  he  overcomes  Gawain — before  he  finds  his 
queen  again  and  is  reconciled  to  her. 

Gregorius.  Hartman's  legend  of  Gregorius,  "  der  guote  sundaere," 
was  in  all  probability  written  about  the  same  time  as  his 
religious  poetry :  like  the  latter,  it  bears  witness  to  the 
revulsion  of  feeling  which  set  in  with  the  tragic  change  in 
the  poet's  life.  Asceticism  has  here  taken  the  place  of  the 
careless  joie  de  vivre  of  Arthurian  chivalry.  It  is  a  strange 
legend  this  of  St  Gregory,  a  legend  which  unites  the  Greek 
idea  of  destiny,  as  it  appears  in  the  saga  of  GEdipus,  with 
the  Christian  belief  in  the  power  of  repentance.  Gregorius 
is  the  child  of  a  brother  and  sister  and  marries  his  own 
mother.  When  he  learns  the  terrible  truth,  he  has  himself 
chained  to  a  lonely  rock  in  the  sea,  where  for  seventeen 
years  his  only  nourishment  is  the  water  that  drops  upon  the 
stone.  At  the  end  of  his  long  penance,  he  is  ordained  Pope 

Der  arm,       ty   the   voice   of  God' 

Heinrich.          Der  arme  Heinrich  is  another  example  of  the  treatment  of 


CHAP.  V.J      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  89 

the  monastic  legend  in  the  style  of  the  Court  epic,  but  its 
religious  fervour  is  less  ruthless  than  that  of  Gregorius.  There 
is  an  odour  of  monastic  asceticism  still  clinging  to  it,  but  the 
poet  is  clearly  on  the  way  to  a  more  harmonious  conception 
of  life.  In  certain  respects  Der  arme  Heinrich  is  the  most 
charming  and  delicate  of  all  Hartman's  poems ;  it  has  none  of 
the  wider  issues  of  Iwein,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  lies  more 
within  the  sphere  of  modern  sympathies.  An  idyll  rather  than 
an  epic,  it  is  the  first  example  of  that  class  of  poetry  which 
in  New  High  German  literature  culminates  in  Hermann  und 
Dorothea.  For  Der  arme  Heinrich,  Hartman  had  no  French 
model.  It  is  probable  that  he  found  the  legend  in  some 
Latin  chronicle  of  the  family  in  whose  service  he  stood. 
The  "  arme  Heinrich "  of  the  poem  is  a  certain  Heinrich 
von  Aue,  who,  at  the  height  of  his  prosperity,  is  struck  with 
leprosy.  There  is  only  one  remedy  for  the  disease — the 
blood  of  a  young  girl  who  is  ready  to  sacrifice  herself 
voluntarily  for  him.  The  daughter  of  a  farmer,  with  whom 
he  has  taken  refuge,  offers  herself,  although  hardly  more 
than  a  child,  as  the  sacrifice.  At  the  last  moment,  how- 
ever, when  Heinrich  hears  the  knife  which  is  to  take  her 
life  being  whetted,  he  repents  :  he  calls  to  the  physician 
to  stay  his  hand : — 

"  ditz  kind  ist  als6  wiinneclich. 
zware  jd  enmac  ich 
stnen  t6t  niht  gesehen. 
gottes  wille  miieze  an  mir  geschehen. 
wir  suln  si  wider  uf  Ian."  z 

The  disease  disappears  by  a  miracle,  and  the  girl,  who  has 
thus  saved  Heinrich's  life,  ultimately  becomes  his  wife. 

The   chief  charm   of  Hartman's  poetry  for  us  is  one  of  Hartman's 
form,  a  charm  of  flowing  narrative,2  of  vivid  pictures,  of  deli-  style- 
cately  balanced  style.     In  a  higher  degree  than  any  other  of 
Crestien's  German  imitators,  Hartman  has  learned  the  French 

1  "  Dies  Kind  ist  so  wonniglich.     Ich  kann  fiirwahr  ihren  Tod  nicht  sehen. 
Gottes  Wille  mbge  an  mir  geschehen.     Wir  sollen  sie  wieder  auf  lassen  "  (11. 
1273-77).     The  metre  of  the  Middle  High  German  Court  epic  consists  of  simple 
rhymed  couplets,  each  of  which  contains  four  stress  syllables. 

2  Cp.  Gottfried  von  Strassburg's  lines  on  Hartman  : — 

"  Wie  luter  und  wie  reine 
stn  kristalllniu  wortelin 
beidiu  sint  und  iemer  muezen  stn  ! " 

—  Tristan,  4626  ff. 


90  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Wolfram 
von 

Eschen- 
bach,  ca. 
1170-1220. 


Wolfram's 
natural- 
ness. 


master's  art  of  telling  a  story.  Crestien's  blunt,  straight- 
forward realism,  however,  is  absent;  Hartman  polishes,  re- 
fines, even  moralises,  where  Crestien  is  content  to  entertain. 
And  behind  the  formal  beauty  of  his  work,  we  look  in  vain 
for  much  to  interest  us.  His  poetry  is  rich  in  strong  con- 
trasts and  conflicts,  as  his  own  life  probably  was  ;  it  bears 
the  stamp  of  a  dualism,  which  is  to  be  found  more  or  less  in 
all  medieval  imaginative  work.  But  Hartman  is  not  a  brood- 
ing thinker  like  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach  ;  he  does  not  try  to 
understand  the  dualism  which  he  feels  so  keenly ;  his  aim  is 
rather  to  discover  some  golden  mean  between  a  worldly 
life  on  the  one  side  and  asceticism  on  the  other.  "  Modera- 
tion," diu  maze,  is  his  watchword  in  all  things  —  in  his 
thoughts  as  in  his  style.  Poets  of  this  type  do  not  mark 
epochs  in  the  literature  of  the  world,  but,  to  uncouth  ages, 
they  teach  the  lesson  of  form  and  measured  beauty.  It  is 
only  unfortunate  that  Hartman's  influence  upon  his  successors 
was  not  greater  than  was  actually  the  case ;  for  the  crying  evil 
of  the  entire  Court  epic  is  its  want  of  maze. 

Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  the  second  of  the  three  chief 
poets  of  the  Court  epic,  is  the  greatest  German  poet  of  the 
middle  ages,  the  greatest  poet  in  modern  European  litera- 
ture before  the  dawn  of  the  Renaissance.  Of  his  life 
we  know  nothing  except  what  he  himself  tells  us.  He 
may  have  been  born  about  1170  and  he  died  about  1220. 
Parzival  was  composed  in  the  same  decade  that  saw  the 
production  of  Hartman's  and  Gottfried's  masterpieces,  of 
Walther's  finest  lyrics,  the  first  decade  of  the  twelfth  century, 
the  most  brilliant  in  the  history  of  medieval  literature.  Wolf- 
ram takes  his  name  from  the  little  Bavarian  town  of  Eschen- 
bach, which  lies  several  miles  to  the  south-east  of  Ansbach ; 
here  he  was  probably  born,  and  he  may  also  have  been  a 
vassal  in  the  service  of  a  Graf  von  Wertheim,  who  had  posses- 
sions in  the  neighbourhood.  He  was  not  a  learned  poet  like 
Hartman  ;  he  boasts  that  he  could  neither  read  nor  write ; 
but  this  is  certainly  not  to  be  taken  too  strictly,  for  his  liter- 
ary knowledge  was  wide.  The  comparative  illiterateness  on 
Wolfram's  part  may,  however,  explain  the  peculiarly  natural 
tone  of  his  verse :  he  seems  less  trammelled  by  literary  con- 
ventions than  the  ordinary  Court  poet.  He  has  little  of  Hart- 
man's moderation,  and  his  fondness  for  mysticism  and  obscurity 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  91 

brought  upon  him  the  displeasure  of  his  contemporary,  Gott- 
fried von  Strassburg.1  His  verses  re-echo  the  fresh,  clear 
notes  of  the  great  national  epics,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  most  alive  in  South  Germany.  His  own  communings 
with  nature,  and  his  love  for  the  forest,  for  its  birds,  its  sun- 
shine, and  its  gloomy  depths,  have  passed  over  into  his  poetry 
irrespective  of  all  canons  of  a  courtly  art ;  his  sturdy  humour 
is  always  ready  to  burst  the  boundaries  of  a  polite  irony. 

Like  so  many  of  his  contemporaries,  Wolfram  von  Eschen- 
bach  enjoyed  the  protection  of  the  Landgraf  Herman  of 
Thuringia ;  he  was  repeatedly  a  guest  of  this  generous  patron 
in  the  Wartburg  at  Eisenach,  and  there  is  ground  for  believ- 
ing that  at  least  the  sixth  and  seventh  books  of  Parzival  were 
composed  in  the  Wartburg  shortly  after  the  summer  of  1203. 
It  was,  moreover,  at  the  Landgraf's  suggestion  that  Wolfram 
undertook  his  Willehalm  ;  he  was  still  engaged  on  this  poem 
when  Herman  died  in  1217,  and  was  himself  overtaken  by 
death  before  he  had  had  time  to  finish  it.  He  lies  buried 
in  the  Frauenkirche  of  Eschenbach.2 

The  sources  of  Wolfram's  Parzival  are  wrapped  in  a 
mystery  which  it  is  hopeless  to  try  to  pierce.  Only  one  The 
version  of  the  story  is  known  to  which  he  could  have  had 
access — namely,  Crestien  de  Troyes'  Perceval  le  Gallois  ou  le 
Conte  del  Graal ;  and  this  poem  Wolfram  has  undoubtedly 
followed  closely ;  but  it  was  not  his  only  source.  From 
Crestien  we  learn  nothing  of  Gahmuret,  Parzival's  father, 
whose  adventures  fill  the  first  two  books  of  the  German  epic, 
and  the  contents  of  the  last  three  of  the  sixteen  books  are 
also  not  to  be  found  in  the  unfinished  French  romance. 
Moreover,  Wolfram  differs  in  many  points  of  detail  from 
Crestien.  The  German  poet  himself  cites  as  his  authority  a 
certain  Provencal  singer,  Kyot  (Guiot),  whose  version  he 
considers  more  correct  than  Crestien's,  but  no  mention  of 
this  Kyot  is  to  be  found  in  either  French  or  German  sources. 

The  Parzival  saga,  which  is,  at  bottom,  akin  to  the  tales 

1  Tristan,  4636  ff. 

2  The  editio princeps  of  Wolfram  is  that  by  K.  Lachmann,  5th  ed.,  Berlin, 
1891 ;  a  convenient  edition  of  Parzival  and   Titurel  by  K.  Bartsch,  3  vols., 
2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1875-77  ;  these  epics  have  also  been  edited  by  E.  Martin,  I, 
Halle,  1900.     In  D.N.L.  Wolfram  is  edited  by  P.  Piper  (5,  1-4  [1890-93]). 
Cp.   San   Marte,  Leben   and  Dichten    Wolfram  -von   Eschenbachs,    3rd.    ed., 
Halle,  1886.      Of  modern  German  translations  of  Parzival  the  best  are  by 
G.  Botticher,  Berlin,   1895,  and  W.  Hertz,  Stuttgart,  1898. 


92  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Parzival's 
father. 


Parzival  in 
the  forest. 


of  simpletons  in  folklore,  was  not  originally  part  of  the 
Arthurian  cycle,  but  seems  at  an  early  date  to  have  become 
associated  with  it.  Crestien  had  already  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  deeper  significance  of  the  fool  who,  in  his  very  guile- 
lessness,  discovers  the  Gral,  but  it  remained  for  the  German 
poet  to  invest  the  story  with  its  full  spiritual  meaning.  Wolf- 
ram is  inferior  to  Crestien  in  the  art  of  story-telling,  but  he  is 
the  greater  poet.  Parzival  is  more  than  an  enthralling  epic 
of  chivalry ;  it  is  the  history  of  a  human  soul  which  passes 
through  life  and  its  temptations,  untarnished  by  zwivel,  by 
vacillation  of  character.  Wolfram's  hero  is,  to  quote  the 
opening  lines  of  the  poem,  no  "  magpie  "  hero,  half  white,  half 
black :  his  soul  is  spotless ;  he  is  the  exemplar  of  what  to 
Wolfram,  as  to  the  poets  of  the  popular  epic,  was  the  highest 
virtue,  diu  triuwe. 

The  first  two  books  of  the  epic  are  occupied  with  the 
history  of  Parzival's  father,  Gahmuret  of  Anjou,  who,  like 
so  many  brave  souls  in  the  age  of  the  Crusades,  seeks  his 
fortune  in  the  East.  Coming  to  the  Moorish  country  of 
Zazamanc,  he  wins  the  hand  of  its  queen,  Belakane,  but 
before  their  son  Feirefiz  is  born,  Gahmuret's  restless  spirit 
has  driven  him  out  once  more  in  quest  of  adventure.  At  a 
great  tournament  in  France,  the  prize,  Queen  Herzeloyde  of 
Waleis  (Valois),  falls  to  him ;  he  annuls  his  marriage  with  the 
heathen  Mooress  and  Herzeloyde  becomes  his  wife.  But  even 
yet  he  cannot  rest ;  he  goes  out  again  into  the  world,  and 
falls  in  battle,  in  the  service  of  the  Caliph  of  Bagdad.  Shortly 
after  the  news  of  Gahmuret's  death  has  reached  Herzeloyde, 
their  son  Parzival  is  born,  and,  to  preserve  him  from  the 
temptations  which  had  proved  so  fatal  to  his  father,  Herze- 
loyde withdraws  from  her  Court,  into  the  solitude  of  a  forest. 
Here  young  Parzival  grows  up,  shorn  of  all  the  glory  and 
ignorant  of  all  the  ceremony  that  surrounds  a  king's  son : — 

"  Bogen  unde  bolzelin 
die  sneit  er  mit  sin  selhes  hant, 
und  sch6z  vil  vogele,  die  er  vant. 
swenne  ab  er  den  vogel  erschfiz, 
des  schal  von  sange  e  was  s6  gr6z, 
s6  weinde  er  unde  roufte  sich, 
an  sin  bar  kert'  er  gerich. 
sin  lip  was  klar  unde  fier : 
(if  dem  plan  am  rivier 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.  93 

twuog  er  sich  alle  morgen. 
er'n  kunde  niht  gesorgen, 
ez  enwsere  ob  im  der  vogelsanc, 
die  siie/e  in  sin  herze  dranc : 
daz  erstracte  im  siniu  briistelin. 
al  weinde  er  lief  zer  kiinegin. 
s6  sprach  sie  '  wer  hat  dir  getan  ? 
du  wser'  bin  uz  uf  den  plan.' 
er'n  kunde  es  ir  gesagen  niht, 
als  kinden  lihte  noch  geschiht."1 

From  his  mother's  lips  he  learns  that  though  God  "  is 
brighter  than  the  day,  yet  His  countenance  is  as  the  counten- 
ances of  men."  To  Him  Parzival  must  turn  in  time  of  need, 
for  He  is  always  ready  with  His  help.  One  day,  wandering 
farther  than  usual  from  home,  he  meets  three  knights  clad  in 
armour ;  remembering  his  mother's  words,  he  thinks  each  of 
them  must  be  a  god  and  falls  on  his  knees  before  them. 
From  them  he  acquires  the  knowledge  his  mother  would  fain 
have  kept  from  him — namely,  what  knighthood  is,  and  that 
this  knighthood  comes  from  King  Artus  (Arthur).  He  can-  Parzival 
not  rest  until  he  has  reached  the  Court  of  Artus  and  become  f^o^e* 
a  knight ;  but  his  mother  dresses  him  in  a  fool's  dress,  in  the  world, 
hope  that  he  may  be  laughed  at  and  frightened  home  again 
to  her.  Thus  ends  this  idyll  of  the  forest,  and  Parzival 
sallies  out  into  the  world,  in  all*  the  foolishness  of  perfect 
innocence. 

A  tragic  fate  now  begins  to  envelop  Parzival's  life.  Un- 
known to  him,  the  parting  with  his  mother  has  broken  her 
heart ;  in  naive  and  childlike  obedience  to  the  advice  she 
has  given  him,  he  robs  a  great  lady  of  ring  and  brooch,  and 
thereby  unconsciously  brings  upon  the  lady  the  hardest  of 
trials.  In  conflict  with  the  Red  Knight,  Ither,  he  kills  him 
with  his  gabylof,  in  guileless  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  chivalry, 
which  forbid  the  use  of  this  weapon.  From  Artus's  camp,  Parzival 
before  Nantes,  he  sallies  forth  once  more  and  reaches  the 

castle. 

1  "  Bogen  und  kleine  Bolzen,  [die]  schnitt  er  mil  eigner  Hand  und  schoss 
viel  V8gel,  die  er  fand.  Wenn  er  aber  den  Vogel  erschossen  hatte,  dessen 
Gesanges  Schall  vorher  so  laut  war,  so  weinte  er  und  raufte  sich  (das 
Haar) ;  an  seinem  Haare  liess  er  seine  Rache  aus.  Sein  Leib  war  schon  und 
stattlich ;  auf  dem  Plan  am  Bache  wusch  er  sich  alle  Morgen.  Er  wusste 
nichts  von  Sorgen,  es  ware  denn  der  Vogelgesang  iiber  ihm,  der  suss  in  sein 
Herz  drang ;  das  dehnte  ihm  sein  Briistlein  aus.  [All]  weinend  lief  er  zur 
Konigin.  Da  sprach  sie:  'Wer  hat  dir  (etwas)  gethan?  Du  bist  hinaus 
(gegangen)  auf  den  Plan.'  Er  konnte  es  ihr  nicht  sagen,  wie  es  Kindern 
leicht  noch  (jetzt)  geschieht"  (118,  4-22). 


94  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Condwir- 
amurs. 


castle  of  the  old  knight  Gurnemanz  of  Graharz,  who  receives 
him  hospitably,  and  teaches  him  the  wisdom  of  life  and  the 
laws  of  knighthood.  Once  more  he  sets  out,  still  innocent  of 
wrong,  but  no  longer  a  simpleton,  and  by  his  first  knightly 
deed  wins  the  heart  and  hand  of  the  beautiful  young  queen 
Condwiramurs,  who  becomes  his  wife.  The  yearning  to  see 
his  mother,  of  whose  death  he  does  not  learn  till  later,  is  the 
occasion  for  Parzival's  next  journey.  Towards  evening  on  the 
first  day  he  arrives  at  a  lake,  and  inquires  of  some  fishers 
where  he  may  find  a  night's  lodging.  The  most  distinguished 
among  the  fishers  directs  Parzival  to  a  castle  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, where  he  will  himself  be  his  host.  Here  he  is  well 
'  received  and  led  into  a  hall  where  sit  four  hundred  knights ; 
his  host,  beside  whom  he  is  placed,  suffers  from  a  wound  that 
will  not  heal,  and  is  no  other  than  King  Anfortas,  the  King 
The  Gral.  of  the  Gral.  The  mystic  ceremony  of  the  Gral,  a  precious 
stone  of  wondrous  power,1  is  now  gone  through  before  him  ; 
Parzival  sees  the  bleeding  spear  borne  through  the  hall,  and 
hears  the  wailing  and  groaning  of  the  knights  at  its  sight ;  and 
through  a  half-open  door  he  catches  a  glimpse  of  King  Titurel, 
old  and  ashen  pale.  But  he  sees  and  hears  all  this  in  silence ; 
no  question  as  to  why  Anfortas  has  to  suffer,  or  what  this 
mystic  ceremony  means,  crosses  his  lips,  for  Gurnemanz  has 
taught  him  not  to  be  over-curious.  Next  morning,  when  he 
wakens,  he  finds  the  company  of  the  previous  evening  gone, 
and  wanders  out  again  into  the  forest ;  too  late  he  learns  that 
he  has  been  in  the  castle  of  Munsalvasche,  the  castle  of  the 
Gral.  Not,  however,  until  he  has  reached  the  camp  of  Artus, 
and  been  received  with  all  honours  at  the  Round  Table,  does 
he  learns  how  serious  has  been  his  omission  to  ask  Anfortas 
why  he  suffered.  The  sorceress  Cundrie,  the  ill-favoured  mes- 
senger of  the  Gral,  suddenly  appears  and  curses  Parzival  for 
his  lack  of  sympathy.  His  guilt  now  rises  before  him  in  all 
its  blackness  :  dishonoured  and  imbittered,  he  leaves  Artus's 
table  to  seek  the  Gral  and  repair  his  fatal  omission.  In 

1  The  Gral  of  the  saga  was  originally  a  vessel  which  was  always  full :  in  a 
later,  religious  version,  it  became  identified  with  the  cup  from  which  Christ 
drank  at  the  Last  Supper  and  in  which  Joseph  of  Arimathea  received  His 
blood  when  He  was  nailed  on  the  cross.  To  Crestien  and  Wolfram,  it  is  a 
precious  stone  with  miraculous  powers  of  supplying  meat  and  drink  ;  but  once 
a  year,  on  Good  Friday,  these  powers  need  to  be  renewed  by  a  dove  from 
heaven. 


Cundrie. 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.  95 

his  despair  he  again  asks  the  childish  question  he  had  Parzival's 
put  to  his  mother  in  the  forest,  "We,  waz  ist  got?  Were  desPair- 
He  mighty,  He  would  not  have  brought  such  shame 
upon  me  !  I  have  served  Him  since  I  have  known  the 
meaning  of  His  mercy  ;  now  I  shall  serve  Him  no  longer. 
If  He  hateth  me,  I  will  bear  it ! " 1  And  so  for  five  long 
years  Parzival  wanders  through  the  world,  at  war  with  God, 
at  war  with  himself,  doubting,  fighting,  seeking, — above  all, 
filled  with  a  deep  longing  for  the  Oral,  whose  glories  he 
has  culpably  forfeited,  and  for  the  beloved  wife,  whom  he 
will  not  see  until  the  Gral  is  found  again.  But  his  manly 
courage  is  still  untarnished,  his  heart  is  still  strong,  his  life 
free  from  all  taint  of  valsch  or  zwivel. 

Meanwhile  Wolfram's  romance  centres  in  the  Arthurian  Gawan's 
knight  Gawan,  and  Parzival  falls  into  the  background.  After  adventures- 
many  adventures  and  trials,  Gawan  wins  the  love  of  the  proud 
beauty  Orgeluse,  who  had  brought  upon  Anfortas  his  un- 
happy fate,  and  whom  Parzival,  constant  in  his  love  for 
Condwiramurs,  alone  withstands.  Gawan  then  successfully 
undergoes  the  adventures  of  the  Magic  Bed  in  Clinschor's 
castle,  and  sets  free  the  women  whom  Clinschor  had  kept 
as  prisoners.  These  adventures  savour  of  the  crasser  ele- 
ments of  the  popular  epics,  but  the  books  in  which  they 
are  contained  (7-8,  10-12)  are  not  devoid  of  poetic  charm; 
the  childish  Obilot  and  the  haughty  Orgeluse,  for  instance, 
are  two  of  the  most  interesting  portraits  in  all  Wolfram's 
gallery  of  women,  while  the  brave  Gawan  himself  is  a  sym- 
pathetic figure,  and  serves,  if  unintentionally,  as  an  artistic 
foil  to  the  pure,  unworldly  Parzival. 

One  Good  Friday  morning,  when  the  ground  is  covered 
with  a  thin  coating  of  snow,  Parzival  meets  some  pilgrims  in 
the  forest,  an  old  knight  with  his  wife  and  daughters.  The 
knight  reproaches  Parzival  for  bearing  arms  on  so  holy  a  day ; 
but  Parzival  knows  nothing  of  holy  days,  for  he  has  long  been 
at  enmity  with  God.  The  old  man  begs  him  to  seek  out  a 
hermit  who  lives  in  the  forest,  and  to  unbosom  himself  of  his 
load  of  sin.  Repentance  begins  at  last  to  steal  into  Parzival's 
soul ;  he  lets  his  horse  wander  whither  it  will,  saying,  if  God 
be  really  so  mighty,  He  will  guide  it.  The  horse  brings  him 
to  the  hermit,  who  turns  out  to  be  Trevrizent,  brother  of  Trevrizent. 

i  332,  i  ff. 


96  MIDDLE    HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Parzival  as 
King  of 
the  Gral. 


Wolfram's 
Titurel. 


Anfortas  and  Herzeloyde,  Parzival's  own  uncle.  With  the 
simple  words — 

"her,  nu  gebet  mir  rat : 
ich  bin  ein  man  der  sUnde  hat," a — 

he  presents  himself  to  Trevrizent.  For  fifteen  days  Parzival 
shares  the  hermit's  cell,  confesses  everything  to  him,  and 
learns  from  him  the  path  he  must  follow  if  he  will  again  find 
the  Gral,  whose  mysteries  Trevrizent  first  fully  reveals  to  him. 
Before  Cundrie  seeks  him  out  once  more,  this  time  that  he 
may  ask  the  question  of  sympathy  and  himself  become  King 
of  the  Gral,  he  has  two  battles  to  fight ;  in  the  first  of  these 
he  overcomes  Gawan,  and  in  the  second  his  own  half-brother 
Feirefiz.  With  the  reunion  of  Parzival  to  Condwiramurs  and 
their  two  sons,  of  whom  the  elder,  Loherangrin  (Lohengrin), 
is  to  succeed  him  as  King  of  the  Gral,  the  poem  closes. 

Parzival  is  the  greatest  achievement  of  purely  medieval 
literature ;  it  is  the  crown  of  that  vast  body  of  poetry  which 
began,  we  might  say,  with  the  crude  Latin  Ruodlieb  by  the 
unknown  Bavarian  poet  of  the  eleventh  century,  spread  over 
every  land  in  Europe,  and  gradually  disappeared  before 
the  Renaissance.  No  other  epic  of  chivalry  presents  so 
varied  a  picture  or  is  so  rich  in  living  creations,  in  men  and 
women  who,  after  the  lapse  of  all  but  seven  centuries,  are  still 
humanly  interesting ;  none  bears  so  distinctly  the  stamp  of  its 
creator's  individuality  as  Parzival ;  above  all,  none  can  com- 
pare with  it  in  the  far  -  reaching  spirituality  of  its  ideas. 
Parzival  is  in  many  ways  greater  than  the  middle  ages 
believed  it  to  be  ;  it  suggests  problems  of  which  even  its 
creator  did  not  and  could  not  know  anything.  What  to 
Wolfram  was  a  romance  of  human  suffering  and  sympathy, 
becomes  to  the  modern  mind  a  tragedy  of  doubt  and  spiritual 
revolt. 

Beside  Parzival^  Wolfram's  other  poetry  is  thrown  unwar- 
rantably into  the  shade.  Yet,  were  Parzival  lost,  Wolfram 
would  still  take  high  rank  on  account  of  Titurel  and  Wille- 
halm;  for  these  poems,  too,  bear  the  unmistakable  mark  of  his 
genius  and  personality.  Titurel  is  the  misleading  title  given 
to  a  number  of  fragments  written  in  a  strophic  metre,  obvi- 
ously suggested  by  that  of  the  popular  epics  ;  the  main  theme 

1  456,  29  f. 


CHAP.  V.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.          97 

of  the  fragments  is  the  love-story  of  Schionatulander  and 
Sigune,  figures  which  appeared  episodically  in  Parzival. 
Wolfram  here  devotes  all  the  delicacy  of  his  art  to  painting 
the  awakening  of  love,  a  passion  which  plays  but  a  subordinate 
part  in  Parzival.  The  beauty  of  the  Titurel  fragments  lies  in 
their  pristine  freshness  ;  they  might  be  compared  with  the  cool- 
ness of  the  morning  before  the  noonday  glare  of  Gottfried's 
Tristan.  It  is  difficult,  however,  to  see  how  an  epic  could 
have  been  made  out  of  Titurel,  unless  by  introducing,  as  a 
later  poet  did,  all  manner  of  irrelevant  episodes.  The  subject 
might  lead  us  to  infer  that  it  had  been  written  in  the  poet's 
youth,  but  as  it  stands,  it  belongs  without  question  to  a  period 
subsequent  to  Parzival. 

Willehalm,  Wolfram's  version  of  the  French  Bataille  (TAles-  wiile- 
chans,  is  a  more  important  work.  Markgraf  Willehalm  von  halm> 
Oransch  has  carried  off  and  married  Gyburg,  the  wife  of  a 
heathen  king.  With  a  large  army  of  Saracens  this  king  defeats 
the  Christian  army  at  Aleschans  and  lays  siege  to  Willehalm's 
castle.  Ultimately  Willehalm  escapes  to  the  French  king, 
who  supplies  him  with  a  fresh  army,  and  the  Saracens  are 
at  last  driven  back.  This  epic  affords  the  opportunity, 
missing  in  the  case  of  Parzival,  of  comparing  Wolfram's  work 
with  its  French  original,  and  such  a  comparison  throws  an 
interesting  light  upon  his  art.  In  general,  Wolfram's  con- 
ception of  life  is  more  humane,  more  chivalrous,  than  that  of 
the  French  Bataille  d* Aleschans ;  his  Christian  heroes  are 
never  fanatics  for  their  faith ;  the  Saracens  are  not  spurned 
because  they  do  not  happen  to  have  been  baptised.  Gyburg, 
the  heroine  of  the  poem,  is  the  most  finely  delineated  of 
Wolfram's  women ;  strong  in  love,  brave  even  to  heroism, 
wise  and  tender,  she  inspires  her  husband  Willehalm,  more 
even  than  his  faith,  to  heroic  deeds.  This  poem  shows 
Wolfram's  attitude  towards  a  stormier,  more  actual  life  than 
that  depicted  in  Parzival ' ;  but,  none  the  less,  it  is  dominated 
by  the  same  calm  and  conciliatory  ideal  of  knightly  courtesy  as 
was  the  greater  epic.  The  problem,  which  in  Erec  and  Iwein 
ended  in  discord,  is  solved ;  love  and  knighthood  are  re- 
conciled. Willehalm,  which  Wolfram  left  unfinished,  was 
extended  by  Ulrich  von  dem  Tiirlin,  who,  about  1270,  pro- 
vided the  poem  with  nearly  10,000  verses  of  introduction. 
Another  Ulrich,  Ulrich  von  Turheim,  supplied  a  continuation 

G 


98  MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Ulrich  von 
Tiirheim's 
Renne- 
wart,  ca. 
1250. 


of  36,400  verses  in  which  the  story  of  the  young  hero  Renne- 
wart  is  carried  to  a  conclusion.  The  date  of  Rennewart  is 
approximately  the  middle  of  the  century.1 

The  greatness  of  Wolfram's  poetry  is  to  be  sought  less  in  its 
literary  art  than  in  the  spirit  which  inspires  it :  it  reflects  on 
almost  every  page  the  untarnished  nobility  of  the  man.  No- 
where in  the  history  of  literature  is  to  be  found  a  nature 
stronger,  truer,  more  sincere  than  that  of  Wolfram  von 
Eschenbach.  No  one  saw  deeper  into  the  heart  of  the 
world,  none  was  ever  less  blinded  by  its  "falseness."  He 
came  nearer  than  any  other  medieval  poet  a  solution  of  the 
problems  and  conflicts  of  human  life ;  in  Wolfram's  calm, 
wise  soul,  the  bitter  dissension  which  had  divided  Europe 
since  the  rise  of  the  spiritual  power  in  the  tenth  century 
has  no  place.  Thus  the  spiritual  significance  of  his  poetry  is 
that  it  effected  for  the  first  time  a  reconciliation  between 
"  Frau  Welt "  and  the  Church ;  knighthood  here  reaches  its 
highest  ideal  in  the  service  of  God. 


1  Cp.  P.  Piper,  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  3  (D.N.L.,  5,  i  [1890]),  318  ff. 


99 


CHAPTER    VI. 

GOTTFRIED   VON    STRASSBURG  ;     THE    DECAY    OF    THE 
COURT    EPIC. 

WHEN  we  turn  from  Parzival  to  the  Tristan  of  Gottfried  von 
Strassburg,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  Wolfram 
should  have  been  branded  by  his  brother-poet  as  an  unclear 
thinker  and  a  poor  stylist :  there  is  no  greater  contrast  to  be 
found  in  medieval  literature  than  that  between  the  poetic 
mysticism  of  Parzival  and  the  lucidity  and  naturalism  of 
Tristan.  At  the  present  time  it  is  easy  to  realise  that  ^d. 
Wolfram  possesses  more  than  Gottfried  of  that  esprit  allemand 
which  has  always  made  for  greatness  in  Northern  literatures ; 
but  Wolfram's  strong  individuality  made  it  impossible  for  him 
to  adapt  himself  to  the  essentially  French  canons  by  which  the 
German  Court  epic  was  dominated.  Thus  for  the  culmination 
of  the  Court  epic  in  its  narrower  sense  we  must  look  rather  to 
Gottfried  :  it  was  he  who  carried  to  its  highest  point  of  develop- 
ment the  form  of  romance  which  had  been  introduced  by 
Heinrich  von  Veldeke  and  perfected  by  Hartman  von  Aue. 
In  comparison  with  Parzival,  Tristan  is  less  Germanic,  but  it 
is  more  in  accordance  with  the  literary  ideal  of  chivalry. 

None  of  the  greater  German  poets  is  so  completely  unknown   Gottfried 
to  us  as  Gottfried  of  Strassburg.     His  life-history  is,  as  far  as  ™^  Strass- 
facts  are  concerned,  a  blank,  and  his  work  throws  little  light 
upon  his  character  and  personality;  even  for  the  most  im- 
portant fact  of  all — namely,  that  the  poet  of  Tristan  actually 
was  Gottfried  von  Strassburg — we  are  dependent  upon  second- 
hand evidence.    We  can  infer,  however,  that  Gottfried  was  what 
the  age  called  a  learned  man,  as  he  was  versed  both  in  Latin 
and  French.     He  was  also  familiar  with  court-life,  but  he  did 
not  himself  belong,  like  Hartman,  Wolfram,  and  Walther,  to  the 


IOO          MIDDLE    HIGH    GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Tristan's 
childhood. 


Tristan 

and 

Morold. 


nobility ;  he  is  entitled  "  Meister,"  never  "  Herr  "  Gottfried  by 
his  contemporaries.  As  to  the  date  of  Tristan,  there  is  a 
celebrated  passage  in  the  eighth  book,  where  Gottfried  breaks 
his  narrative  to  give  his  opinions  of  the  poets  of  his  time,  and 
from  this  passage  it  is  possible  to  infer  that  the  epic  was 
written  about  the  year  izio.1 

Riwalin  of  Parmenia,  Tristan's  father,  comes  to  the  Court 
of  King  Marke  of  Kurnewal  (Cornwall),  where  he  wins  the 
love  of  the  king's  sister  Blanscheflur.  She  escapes  secretly 
with  him,  and  they  are  married  in  Parmenia.  Shortly  after- 
wards Riwalin  falls  in  battle,  and  Blanscheflur  dies,  broken- 
hearted, at  the  birth  of  her  child.  The  young  hero  whose 
entry  into  the  world  has  been  so  tragic  is  adopted  by  Riwalin's 
faithful  marshal  Rual,  and  brought  up  as  his  own  son.  Tristan 
is  not,  like  Parzival,  an  inexperienced  simpleton  who  has  to 
learn  the  lessons  of  life ;  he  is  from  the  first  a  prodigy,  and  at 
the  age  of  fourteen  is  versed  in  the  accomplishments  of  chivalry. 
Carried  off  by  Norse  merchants,  he  is  landed  on  the  coast  of 
Kurnewal,  and  finds  his  way  to  King  Marke's  castle  of  Tintajoel 
(Tintagel),  where  he  astonishes  the  Court  by  his  attainments. 
Here,  after  a  search  of  four  years,  his  foster-father  finds  him, 
and  the  true  story  of  his  parentage  is  disclosed,  not  only  to 
King  Marke  but  to  Tristan  himself.  King  Marke  adopts 
him  as  his  heir,  and  a  festival  is  held  at  which  the  young 
man  goes  through  the  ceremony  of  the  "  Schwertleite  " — that 
is  to  say,  is  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  knight.  Tristan  goes  back 
to  Parmenia,  takes  vengeance  upon  his  father's  murderer,  re- 
conquers the  country,  and  leaves  it  to  Rual  and  his  sons,  he 
himself  returning  to  his  uncle.  Meanwhile  the  tribute  imposed 
upon  King  Marke's  land  by  King  Gurmun  of  Ireland  and  his 
brother-in-law  Morold  has  become  intolerable,  but  no  one  has 
the  courage  to  face  Morold  in  single  combat,  and  this  is  the  only 
hope  of  freeing  Kurnewal  from  the  Irish  yoke.  When  Tristan 
arrives,  he  at  once  accepts  Morold's  challenge,  and  the  battle 
is  fought  on  a  small  island.  Tristan  returns  victorious,  but 
with  a  wound  which,  as  the  dying  Morold  has  told  him,  none 
but  his  sister,  the  Irish  queen,  can  heal.  Morold's  body  is 

1  Editions  of  Gottfried's  Tristan  by  R.  Bechstein,  2  vols.,  3rd  ed.,  Leipzig, 
1890-91,  and  W.  Golther  in  D.N.L.,  4,  2,  i  and  2  [1889].  The  best  transla- 
tions into  modern  German  are  by  H.  Kurz,  3rd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1877,  and  W. 
Hertz,  2nd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1894. 


CHAP.  VI.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.        IOI 

brought  back  to  Ireland,  and  the  queen  preserves  a  splinter  of 
Tristan's  sword  which  she  finds  in  her  brother's  wound. 

Under  the  name  Tantris,  and  disguised  as  a  Spielmann,  Tristan  in 
Tristan  comes  to  Develin  (Dublin),  the  capital  of  Ireland,  Ireland- 
where  he  wins  the  interest  of  the  young  princess  Isold  for  his 
art ;  in  return  for  the  instruction  which  he  gives  her  in  music 
and  languages,  her  mother  heals  his  wound.  Then,  on  the 
plea  that  he  has  left  a  beloved  wife  at  home,  he  returns 
to  Kurnewal.  The  nobles  of  the  land  grow  jealous  of  the 
favour  which  Tristan  enjoys  at  King  Marke's  Court,  and, 
in  the  hopes  of  preventing  Tristan  being  Marke's  successor, 
persuade  the  king  to  marry.  The  young  Isold,  of  whose  Isold, 
beauty  Tristan  has  brought  back  favourable  reports,  is  chosen 
as  the  king's  bride,  and  Tristan  returns  to  Ireland  as  an 
envoy.  Isold,  however,  discovers  in  Tristan  the  Tantris  of 
former  days  ;  she  loves  him,  but  her  love  changes  suddenly 
to  hatred  when  she  discovers,  by  means  of  the  sword-splinter 
which  her  mother  has  preserved,  that  Tristan  slew  her  uncle. 
She  is  on  the  point  of  killing  him  with  his  own  sword  when 
the  queen  intervenes.  A  reconciliation  is  brought  about  by 
Isold's  attendant,  Brangane.  Tristan  explains  his  mission, 
and  Isold's  father  consents  to  her  becoming  Marke's  bride. 
On  the  voyage  to  Kurnewal,  Isold  still  regards  her  uncle's 
murderer  with  hatred,  until  an  unhappy  accident  changes 
this  hatred  to  the  fiercest  passion:  she  and  Tristan  drink,  The"Mhi- 
in  mistake  for  wine,  a  love-potion  which  Isold's  mother  has  netrank- 
intrusted  to  Brangaene  in  order  to  ensure  a  happy  union 
between  her  daughter  and  King  Marke : — 

"  Nu  daz  diu  maget  unde  der  man, 
Is&t  unde  Tristan, 
den  tranc  getrunken  beide,  sa 
was  ouch  der  werlde  unmuoze  da 
Minn',  aller  herzen  lagaerin, 
und  sleich  z'ir  beider  herzen  in. 
e  si's  ie  wurden  gewar, 
do  stiez  si  ir  sigevanen  dar 
und  z6ch  si  beide  in  ir  gewalt : 
si  wurden  ein  und  einvalt, 
die  zwei  und  zwivalt  waren  £  ; 
si  zwei  en  waren  do  niht  me 
widerwertic  under  in : 
Is6te  haz  der  was  d&  bin. 
diu  siienrerinne  Minne 
diu  haete  ir  beider  sinne 


102          MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

von  hazze  als&  gereinet, 

mit  liebe  als6  vereinet, 

daz  ietweder  dem  andern  was 

durchluter  alse  ein  spiegelglas. 

si  haeten  beide  ein  herze  : 

ir  swsere  was  sin  smerze, 

sin  smerze  was  ir  swaere  ; 

si  waren  beide  einbaere 

an  liebe  unde  an  leide 

und  halen  sich  doch  beide, 

und  tete  daz  zwivel  unde  scham  : 

si  schamte  sich,  er  tete  alsam  ; 

si  zwivelte  an  im,  er  an  ir. 

swie  blint  ir  beider  herzen  gir 

an  einem  willen  woere, 

in  was  doch  beiden  swaere 

der  urhap  unde  der  begin  : 

daz  hal  ir  willen  under  in."1 

The  passion  thus  suddenly  called  into  existence  grows  every 
day  fiercer  as  the  lovers  approach  their  journey's  end,  sweep- 
ing away  all  Tristan's  honour  and  Isold's  sense  of  shame. 
At  length  the  ship  reaches  Kurnewal,  and  the  wedding  of 
King  Marke  and  Isold  takes  place  shortly  afterwards.  With 
Brangaene's  aid,  Tristan  and  Isold's  love  is  kept  a  secret  from 
the  king.  Fearful  of  discovery,  Isold  even  plots  Brangaene's 
death,  but  repents  before  the  deed  is  carried  out. 

One  adventure  now  follows  another  in  which  the  lovers 
deceive  the  king :  his  suspicions  are  awakened  time  after  time, 
only  to  be  allayed  by  Isold's  cunning.  She  even  under- 
goes the  crucial  medieval  test  of  truth-telling :  she  takes  an 
oath  which,  through  a  quibble,  is  not  untrue,  and  corroborates 
it  by  carrying  red-hot  iron  in  her  naked  hand;  whereupon 
the  poet  reflects  upon  the  power  of  Christ  to  withstand  deceit, 
in  terms  which  later  ages  have  pronounced  blasphemous.  It 

l  "  Nun  da  die  Jungfrau  und  der  Mann,  Isold  und  Tristan,  beide  den  Trank 
getrunken,  war  sogleich  auch  der  Welt  Unruhe  da,  Minne,  aller  Herzen  Nach- 
stellerin,  und  schlich  zu  ihrer  beider  Herzen  hinein.  Ehe  sic  es  [je]  gewahr 
wurden,  stiess  sie  ihre  Siegesfahne  dorthin  und  zog  sie  beide  in  ihre  Gewalt : 
sie  wurden  eins  und  einig,  die  ehedem  zwei  und  zweifach  waren.  Die  zwei 
waren  nun  einander  nicht  mehr  widerwartig ;  Isolds  Hass,  der  war  dahin. 
Die  SUhnerin  Minne,  die  hatte  ihrer  beider  Sinne  von  Hasse  so  gereinigt, 
mit  Liebe  so  vereinet,  dass  jeder  dem  andern  durch  und  durch  klar  war  wie 
ein  Spiegelglas.  Sie  hatten  beide  Ein  Herz  ;  ihr  Kummer  war  sein  Schmerz, 
sein  Schmerz  war  ihr  Kummer.  Sie  waren  beide  gleich  an  Freude  und  an 
Leid  und  verhehlten  (es)  sich  doch  beide,  und  das  that  (der)  Zweifel  und  (die) 
Scham  ;  sie  schamte  sich,  er  that  das  gleiche  ;  sie  zweifelte  an  ihm,  er  an  ihr. 
Wie  blind  ihrer  beider  Herzensbegierde  in  Einem  Willen  (auch)  war,  (so)  war 
ihnen  beiden  doch  der  Anfang  und  der  Beginn  schwer  ;  das  (dieser  Umstand) 
verhehlte  ihren  Willen  vor  einander"  (xvi.  11,711-11,744). 


CHAP.  VI.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.        103 

is,  however,  hardly  allowable  to  judge  Gottfried  by  modern 
criteria  of  religion  and  morality ;  he  is  not  to  be  censured  be- 
cause, in  those  adventures  in  which  the  whole  beauty  of  his  art 
is  displayed,  he  has  no  thought  for  the  tragic  retribution  which 
a  modern  reader,  from  his  less  nai've  standpoint,  holds  neces- 
sary. Gottfried  has  here  doubtless  followed  his  French  model, 
and  neither  a  French  nor  a  German  poet  would  at  that  time 
have  regarded  the  "  Minnetrank "  as  necessarily  involving 
tragic  consequences.  Ultimately  Tristan  and  Isold  are  ban- 
ished, and  the  poet  once  more  unfolds  all  his  wealth  of 
poetic  imagery  in  describing  their  life  in  the  "  Minnegrotte."  The"Min- 
Another  reconciliation  and  another  discovery  take  place,  and  nesrotte- 
this  time  Tristan  has  to  flee.  At  the  Court  of  the  Duke  of 
Arundel,  whose  service  he  has  entered  in  the  hope  of  thereby 
forgetting  Isold,  he  meets  another  Isold,  "  Isold  of  the  White  Isold  of 
Hands,"  daughter  of  the  duke.  For  her  there  awakens  in 
Tristan's  heart  a  new  passion,  with  which  it  would  seem  as  if 
his  love  for  the  "blond  Isold"  of  Kurnewal  were  mingled. 
Here,  however,  Gottfried's  poem  breaks  off,  and  we  are  obliged 
to  turn  to  his  continuators,  Ulrich  von  Tiirheim,  who  wrote  in  Ulrichvon 
Swabia  about  1240,  and  Heinrich  von  Freiberg,  whose  more  Tarh^™ 

mid  Hein- 

successful  version  was  written  about  1300,!  for  the  conclusion  rich  von 
of  the  poem.  Tristan  marries  the  white-handed  Isold,  but  Freiberg, 
still  loves  the  other  and  ultimately  returns  to  Kurnewal.  After 
a  fresh  series  of  love  adventures,  we  find  him  once  more  with 
his  wife  :  he  is  wounded  by  a  poisoned  spear.  Only  the  blond 
Isold  can  bring  healing,  and  he  sends  a  messenger  across  the 
sea  to  fetch  her.  If  she  is  on  the  returning  ship,  it  is  to  bear 
a  white  sail  :  if  not,  a  black  one.  The  ship  bringing  her 
comes  in  sight,  but  Tristan's  wife  deceives  him,  telling  him 
that  the  sail  is  black,  not  white.  When  the  blond  Isold 
arrives,  she  finds  her  lover  already  dead,  and  she,  too,  dies  of 
grief.  King  Marke  at  last  learns  the  secret  of  the  fatal  potion, 
and  has  the  bodies  brought  back  to  Kurnewal ;  on  Tristan's 
grave  he  plants  a  rose  and  on  Isold's  a  rose,  and,  as  they  grow, 
they  intertwine. 

Tristan  was  Gottfried's  last  work,  but  it  may  be  doubted  if  it 
was  his  only  one.  There  is  no  trace  of  the  unpractised  hand 
in  Tristan  ;  from  the  first  line  onwards,  it  is  the  work  of  a  poet 

1  Heinrich  von  Freiberg's  continuation  has  been  edited  by  R.  Bechstein, 
Leipzig,  1877.     Cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  3,  166  ff. 


IO4         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Sources  of 
Gottfried's 
Tristan. 


Gottfried's 
style. 


whose  art  was  mature.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  not  able  to 
claim  Gottfried's  authorship  for  anything  else  but  a  couple  of 
lyrics,  and  it  is  even  uncertain  if  they  are  his.  The  sources  of 
Tristan  are  wrapped  almost  as  completely  in  mystery  as  those 
of  Parzival.  The  saga  makes  the  impression  of  being  more 
primitive  than  the  ordinary  romance  of  chivalry ;  it  has  some- 
thing of  the  grandiose  simplicity  of  the  early  Germanic  myths. 
It  may  possibly  be  of  Keltic  origin,  but  it  is  only  loosely  con- 
nected with  the  cycles  of  Arthurian  romance.  In  any  case, 
Tristan  received  the  form  in  which  we  know  it  in  France,  and 
from  France  Gottfried  borrowed  his  original.  But  here  again 
we  meet  with  difficulties.  Crestien  von  Troyes  wrote  a  7m- 
tan,  which  might  possibly — Crestien's  poem  is  lost — have  been 
Gottfried's  source,  were  it  not  that  the  German  poet  expressly 
cites  as  his  authority  a  certain  Thomas  von  Britanje.  This 
Thomas  is  not  so  mysterious  a  person  as  Wolfram's  Kyot, 
for  some  fragments  have  been  preserved  of  an  old  French 
Tristan,  and  in  one  of  these  a  jongleur  named  Thomas  is 
mentioned  as  the  author.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  French 
fragments  begin  where  Gottfried  has  left  off,  and  a  comparison 
of  the  French  and  German  versions  is  hence  impossible. 

It  is  no  easy  matter,  in  the  case  of  so  impersonal  a  poet  as 
Gottfried,  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  his  poetic  talent :  it  is 
even  open  to  question  if  Gottfried  has  done  more  than  merely 
translate  his  original.  The  general  composition  of  the  poem, 
the  simplicity  of  motive  which  carries  us  back  to  a  period 
before  the  existence  of  chivalry,  the  fineness  of  characterisa- 
tion, even  the  background  to  the  events  —  for  Gottfried 
assuredly  never  saw  the  sea,  which  is  almost  as  immediately 
present  in  Tristan  as  in  Gudrun — all  this  Gottfried  probably 
found  ready  to  his  hand  in  the  French  original. 

His  style,  however,  is  his  own — it  is  a  direct  development 
of  that  of  Hartman ;  but  his  resources  were  greater,  and  he 
reveals  a  finer  sense  for  rhythm  than  did  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors. He  is  conscious  of  the  monotony  of  the  rhymed 
couplet,  and  occasionally  breaks  it  with  iambic  strophes,  which 
give  lyric  colouring  to  the  poem.  Of  all  the  poets  of  the 
Court  epic,  Gottfried  von  Strassburg  had  the  greatest  mastery 
over  rhyme  and  language.  But,  like  all  masters  of  language, 
he  falls  into  mannerisms.  He  loves  antitheses  and  repetitions ; 
he  is  fond  of  playing  upon  words.  The  effect  is  pleasing 


CHAP.  VI.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.        IO5 

in  him,  but  it  is  the  beginning  of  decay  in  Middle  High 
German  verse.  Elements  of  degeneration,  too,  are  to  be 
noticed  in  Gottfried's  fondness  for  allegory,  a  fondness  which 
in  the  later  Court  epic  assumes  extraordinary  dimensions. 

The  real  greatness  of  the  German  Tristan  lies  in  its  con-  Gottfried 
ception  and  description  of  love.  In  Gottfried's  power  of  real-  a*  a  P061 
ising  the  most  delicate  manifestations  of  passion,  in  the  con- 
vincing truth  with  which  he  paints  its  effects,  he  has  no  rival 
in  medieval  literature.  And,  in  all  probability,  it  is  here  that 
his  deviations  from  the  French  original  were  greatest.  In  the 
story  of  Tristan's  parents,  which,  unlike  most  introductions,  is 
poetically  on  a  level  with  the  rest  of  the  epic,  we  have  a  fore- 
taste of  the  poet's  ability  to  describe  "  Frau  Minne's  "  might ; 
and  this  foretaste  helps  us  to  appreciate  the  wide  range  a.nd 
variety  of  his  art  in  the  great  moments  of  Tristan  and  Isold's 
story.  No  other  poet  before  the  Renaissance  celebrated  love 
in  such  glowing  tones ;  never  was  a  great  passion  so  magnifi- 
cently described  as  in  the  scenes  of  the  "  Minnetrank " 
and  the  "  Minnegrotte."  One  of  the  secrets  of  Gottfried's 
mastery  as  a  love-poet  is  his  unrelenting  earnestness ;  indeed, 
the  earnestness  that  lies  over  Tristan  merges  almost  into 
melancholy.  No  gleam  of  humour  relieves  the  tragedy  of  the 
story,  no  touch  of  frivolity  :  Tristan  is  the  most  serious  of  all 
the  Court  epics.  We  may  possibly  be  doing  Gottfried's  lost 
model  an  injustice  in  giving  the  German  poet  credit  for 
those  elements  in  Tristan  which  entitle  it  to  be  regarded 
as  great  poetry ;  but  the  warmth  and  the  heartfelt  sincerity  of 
the  German  epic  are  foreign  to  the  French  temperament  as 
far,  at  least,  as  that  temperament  is  expressed  in  French 
medieval  literature.  Gottfried's  conception  of  love  is  essenti 
ally  Germanic ;  it  is  the  love  of  Romeo  and  Juliet,  the 
love  that  inspires  Goethe's  lyrics  and  the  poetry  of  German 
Romanticism. 

The  Court  epic  in   its  later  development  stands  entirely  The  later 
under  the  influence  of  Hartman,  Wolfram,  and  Gottfried,  but  Court  ePic- 
it  never  again  came  within  measurable  distance  of  Iwein,  of 
Parzival,  or  Tristan  ;  the  later  romances  are  rarely  more  than 
tedious  and  uninspired  imitations.     It  is  thus  impossible  in  a 
general  history  to  discuss  the  epic  poetry  of  this  period  with  a 
completeness  proportionate  to  its  bulk,  or  to  do  it  the  justice 
it  deserves  as  the  staple  imaginative  food  of  a  nation  for  almost 


106         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


The  in- 
fluence of 
Hartman. 

Ulrich  vcm 

Zatzik- 

hoven. 


Wirnt  von 
Graven - 
berg. 


"The 
Strieker's ' 
Daniel. 


Heinrich 
von  dem 
Turlin. 


two  hundred  years.  For  many  writers,  to  whom  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries  looked  up  as  poets  of  the  first  rank, 
a  few  words  of  mention  must  suffice. 

Upon  contemporaries  of  the  three  great  poets,  the  influence 
of  Hartman  is  the  most  noticeable :  he  was  the  easiest  to  imi- 
tate, and  consequently  the  first  to  be  imitated.  A  clerical  poet 
of  the  Thurgau  in  Northern  Switzerland,  Ulrich  von  Zatzik- 
hoven,  wrote  about  1195  a  Lanzelet^-  which  is  to  some  extent 
modelled  on  Hartman's  Erec.  The  poem,  however,  has  no 
great  poetic  merit,  and  combines  the  crudeness  and  rough 
popular  tone  of  the  epic  before  Hartman,  with  that  extravagant 
delight  in  fairy  lore  which  was  one  of  the  earliest  signs  of 
decay  in  the  Arthurian  romance. . 

Among  the  minor  poets  of  the  classical  decade  of  Middle 
High  German  poetry,  Wirnt  von  Gravenberg,  a  Bavarian 
nobleman,  takes  the  first  place.  In  his  Wigalois?  written 
probably  between  1202  and  1205,  he  describes  the  adven- 
tures of  Gawein's  son,  Wigalois,  the  name  being  a  German 
corruption  of  Guy  or  Guinglain  le  Galois.  Wirnt's  original, 
which  he  treated  with  a  greater  freedom  and  originality  than 
his  contemporaries  allowed  themselves,  was  the  French  epic 
Li  bel  inconnit)  by  Renauld  de  Beaujeu.  The  German 
romance  is  disfigured  by  the  extravagance  of  its  incidents 
and  its  didactic  tone,  features,  however,  which  by  no  means 
detracted  from  its  popularity;  but  Wirnt's  imagination,  not- 
withstanding its  lack  of  discipline,  is  unquestionably  the 
imagination  of  a  poet.  Daniel  von  dem  bliihenden  Thai*  is 
the  title  of  an  epic  by  "the  Strieker" — a  poet  of  whom 
more  will  presently  be  said — in  which  are  woven  together  a 
series  of  elaborate  adventures,  mainly  imitated  from  older 
German  romances :  in  it,  moreover,  Gottfried  von  Strassburg's 
influence  is  to  be  traced  for  the  first  time. 

The  author  of  Diu  Krone  (i.e.,  "the  crown  of  all  adven- 
tures "),  a  planless  Arthurian  romance  of  some  30,000  verses, 
drawn  from  many  sources,  was  the  Carinthian  poet,  Heinrich 
von  dem  Turlin,  who  wrote  shortly  after  Hartman's  death, 
but  probably  not  later  than  1220.  The  hero  of  this  epic  is 

1  Ed.  K.  A.  Hahn,  Frankfort,  1845  ;   cp.   P.   Piper,  Die  hofiiche  Epik,  2 
(D.N.L.,  4,  i,  2  [1893]),  163  ff. 

2  Ed.  F.  Pfeiffer,  Leipzig,  1847;   D.N.L.,  I.e.,  199  ff.     Cp.  F.  Saran,  in 
Paul  and  Braune's  Beitnige,  21  (1896),  253  ff. 

3  Ed.  G.  Rosenhagen,  Breslau,  1894;  cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3  [1895],  86  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.        IO/ 

Gawein  (Gawan) ;  it  is  Gawein,  not  Parzival,  who  asks  the 
question  in  the  castle  of  the  Gral ;  and  as  soon  as  the  words 
have  crossed  his  lips,  the  castle  and  all  its  wonders  disappear. 
The  poet  of  Diu  Krone  shares  the  literary  tastes  of  the 
Spielleute ;  he  delights  more  in  the  rough  humour  of  Kei,  the 
comic  figure  at  Arthur's  table,  than  in  the  finer  issues  of  the 
story.  Besides  writing  Diu  Krone,  Heinrich  von  dem  Tiirlin 
was  also  the  author  of  Der  Mantel,  the  hero  of  which,  to  judge 
from  the  fragment  that  has  come  down  to  us,  was  Lancelot.1 

Among  the  poets  of  a  later  age  who  stood  in  Hartman's   "The,, 
shadow,  the  chief  is   "  the  Pleier,"  a  native  of  Salzburg  or  r  eier> 
Styria,  who   between   1260  and    1290   wrote  three  epics  of 
no  marked  individuality,   Garel  von  dem  bluJitnden   Thai,  of 
which  the  Strieker's  Daniel  was  obviously  the  model,   Tan- 
darcis,   and  Meleranz?     Konrad  von  Stoffel  imitated  Iwein 
in  his  Gauriel von  Muntabel or  "the  Knight  with  the  Goat."3 
Finally,  mention  must  be  made  of  Wigamur ?  a  tasteless  medley    Wigamur. 
of  adventures  by  an  unknown  poet  who  was  either  himself 
a  Spielmann  or  had,  at  least,  learned  his  art  from  Spielleute. 

The  influence  of  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach  has  left  its  mark  Wolfram's 
on   the  so-called  Jiingere   Titurelf  which  a  Bavarian  poet,   mfluence- 
Albrecht  von  Scharfenberg,  who  wrote  about  1270,  built  upon  DerjUn- 
the  unfinished  fragments  of  Wolfram's  TitureL     The  love-story  8f™ef1^ 
which  Wolfram  had  begun  is  in  this  lengthy  epic  extended   1270.' 
into  a  poetic  history  of  the  Gral,  from  the  time  of  Christ  to 
"  Prester  John,"  who  is  identified  with  Parzival.     In  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries,  Der  Jiingere  Titiirel  was  not 
only  believed  to  be  by  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  but,  still 
stranger,  regarded  as  his  greatest  work.     The  inevitable  com- 
parison with  Parzival  is  apt,  however,  to  blind  us  to  the  merits 
of  the  poem.     Albrecht  imitates  and  accentuates  his  master's 
mannerisms  of  thought  and  style  absurdly  enough,  in  his  efforts 
to  attain  an  air  of  significance,  but  he  has  a  keen  sense  for  the 
romantic  element  in  poetry  :  the  description  of  the  Temple  of 

1  Diu  Krone,  ed.  G.   H.  F.  Scholl,  Stuttgart,  1852 ;   Der  Mantel,  ed.  O. 
Warnatsch,  Breslau,  1883.     Cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  2,  242  ff. 

2  The  three  poems  have  been  edited  respectively  by  M.  Walz,  Freiburg, 
1892  ;  by  F.  Khull,  Graz,  1885  ;  and  by  K.  Bartsch,  Stuttgart,  1861.     Cp. 
D.N.L.,  4,  i,  2,  302  ff. 

3  Eel.  F.  Khull,  Graz,  1885;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  388  ff. 

*  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  560  ff.     Cp.  G.  Sarrazin,  Wigamur  (Quellen  und  Forsch- 
ungen,  35),  Strassburg,  1879. 

6  Ed.  K.  A.  Hahn,  Quedlinburg,  1842  ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  452  ff. 


108         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


the  Gral,  for  instance,  is  no  unworthy  example  of  the  heights  to 
which  the  medieval  imagination  could  rise.  To  a  later  date 
Lohengrin,  belongs  Lohengrin  by  an  unnamed  Bavarian  poet :  it  relates  an 
episode  in  the  famous  "  Wartburgkrieg,"  of  which  something 
has  to  be  said  in  a  later  chapter.  Wolfram  is  here  made  to 
describe  the  adventures  of  Parzival's  son  in  the  wars  of 
Heinrich  I.  against  the  heathens,  and  to  tell  how,  as  the 
Knight  of  the  Swan,  Lohengrin  championed  Elsam,  daughter 
of  a  Duke  of  Brabant.1 

The  blending  of  history  with  Arthurian  romance,  which  we 
meet  with  in  Lohengrin,  is  one  of  the  most  significant  changes 
that  came  over  the  Court  epic  in  the  second  half  of  the 
thirteenth  century :  it  marks  the  transition  from  epic  to 
rhyme  chronicle.  Ulrich  von  Eschenbach,  the  author  of 
one  of  the  most  popular  Middle  High  German  romances 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  the  Alexander,  written  in  the  last 
quarter  of  the  century,  introduced  historical  elements  into 
a  Bohemian  romance,  Wilhelm  von  Wenden  (ca.  12  go).2  The 
hero  of  Berthold  von  Holle's  Krane  (ca.  1255),  again,  is  a 
Hungarian  prince.3  In  the  Livlandische  Reimchronik  and  the 
Weltchronik  of  Jans  Enikel,4  a  native  of  Vienna — to  mention 
only  two  of  the  numerous  works  of  this  class  written  at  the 
close  of  the  thirteenth  and  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
centuries — the  transition  from  epic  to  chronicle  is  already 
accomplished. 

The  literary  movement  of  the  later  thirteenth  century 
clearly  favoured  a  closer  touch  with  actual  life  than  is  to  be 
found  in  the  masterpieces  of  the  Arthurian  epic.  The  intro- 
duction of  historical  events  and  personages  in  the  epic  was 
one  manifestation  of  this  tendency ;  another  was  the  fondness 
of  the  later  poets  for  treating  stories  of  peasant  life,  in  the 
manner  of  the  Court  epic.  In  the  earlier  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century  we  find  a  forerunner  of  this  realism  in  the  Spielmann 
who  is  known  by  the  name  of  "  Der  Strieker."  Although 
not  perhaps  an  Austrian  by  birth,  "the  Strieker"  wrote  in 

i  Ed.  H.  Ruckert,  Quedlinburg,  1858 ;  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  56  ff. 

1  Both  poems  have  been  edited  by  W.  Toischer  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  183), 
1888,  and  Prag,  1876  ;  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  40  ff. 

8  Ed.  K.  Bartsch,  Niirnberg,  1858 ;  Berthold  is  also  the  author  of  an  epic, 
Demantin,  ed.  K.  Bartsch  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  123),  1875.  Cp.  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  i  ff. 

4  Ed.  P.  Strauch  (for  the  Monumenta  germanica),  Hanover,  1891-1900 ; 
D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  658  ff. 


Ulrich  von 
Eschen- 
bach. 


Berthold 
von  Holle. 

Jans 
Enikel. 


"The 
Strieker." 


CHAP.  VI.        MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.       IOQ 


Austria.  His  chief  importance  is  that,  with  his  Pfaffe  Amis, 
he  gave  higher  literary  life  to  a  type  of  romance  which  is  to 
German  literature  what  the  picaresque  romance  is  to  that  of 
Spain.  Amis,  who  is  closely  allied  to  Morolf,  stands  at  the 
head  of  a  long  line  of  clever,  witty  rascals,  the  heroes  of 
countless  "Schwanke"  and  comic  adventures:  he  is  the 
Middle  High  German  forerunner  of  Eulenspiegel.  Besides 
being  the  author  of  Pfaffe  Amis,  "  the  Strieker "  wrote  an 
Arthurian  romance  which  has  already  been  mentioned,  an 
epic,  Karl — virtually  a  version  of  Konrad's  Rolandslied — 
and  a  number  of  "  Bispel "  or  parables,  which  are  akin  to 
the  didactic  fables  in  favour  in  the  sixteenth  century.1 

The  conflict  between  the  literary  ideals  of  chivalry  and  the 
newly  awakened  realism  is  most  marked  in  the  poetry  of  Ulrich 
von  Liechtenstein.2  Born  probably  about  1200,  Ulrich  von 
Liechtenstein  belonged  to  a  noble  Styrian  family ;  late  in 
life — in  1255 — he  wrote  his  Frauendienst^  in  which,  with 
a  desire  to  be  entertaining  rather  than  strictly  truthful,  he 
described  his  own  fantastic  adventures  as  knight  and  lover. 
Reflected  in  the  essentially  unromantic  temperament  of  a  poet 
like  Ulrich,  the  chivalry  he  describes  becomes  artificial  and 
meaningless ;  Frauendienst  leaves  behind  it  an  impression 
which  might  be  compared  with  that  produced  by  daylight  on 
the  scenery  of  a  theatre.  The  numerous  lyrics  and  "  Biichlein  " 
in  the  style  of  Hartman,  which  are  embedded  in  this  Dichtung 
und  Wahrheit  of  the  thirteenth  century,  are  the  most  valuable 
part  of  the  work.  In  the  Frauenbuch,  written  a  couple  of  years 
later,  Ulrich  returns  to  the  same  theme ;  but  this  time  there  is 
some  bitterness  in  his  retrospect.  An  epoch  in  German 
social  history  was  clearly  passing  away. 

On  the  whole,  the  most  pleasing  example  of  the  germinating 
realism  in  Middle  High  German  poetry  is  the  short  peasant 
romance  of  Meier  Helmbreht,  by  Wernher  der  Gartensere,  a 
poet  of  Upper  Bavaria.3  If  we  except  certain  elements  in  the 

1  Der  Pfaffe  Amis,  in  H.   Lambel,  Ertdhlungen  und  Schwanke,  and  ed., 
Leipzig,  1883,  i  ff.;  Karl  has  been  edited  by  K.  Bartsch,  Quedlinburg,  1857. 
Cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  86  ff.,  also  2,  2,  113  ff. 

2  Ed.  K.  Lachmann,  Berlin,  1841 ;   the  Frauendienst  has  also  been  edited 
by  R.  Bechstein,  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1888  ;   D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  420  ff.     Cp.  R. 
Becker,   Wahrheit  und  Dichtung  in  Ulrichs  von  Liechtenstein  Frauendienst, 
Halle,  1888. 

3  Ed.   H.   Lambel,  I.e.,   131  ff.,  and   F.    Keinz,   2nd  ed.,   Leipzig,    1887 ; 
D.N.L.,  4,  i,  2,  398  ff. 


Der  Pfaffe 
Amis. 


Ulrich  von 
Liechten- 
stein, ca. 
1200-76. 


Wernher's 
Meier 
Helm- 
breht, ca. 
1240. 


1 10         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

Latin  Ruodlieb  of  the  eleventh  century,  Meier  Helmbreht  is 
the  earliest  specimen  of  the  peasant  romance  to  be  found  in 
European  literature.  It  is  the  tragic  story  of  a  peasant  who, 
discontented  with  his  station,  enters  the  service  of  a  robber- 
knight.  After  a  year  he  returns  to  his  family,  but  gives 
himself  such  airs  that  they  at  first  do  not  recognise  him. 
He  persuades  his  sister  to  marry  one  of  his  freebooting  com- 
panions, but  the  company  is  surprised  by  officers  of  the  law, 
and  nine  are  executed.  Helmbreht  himself  escapes,  but  only 
with  the  loss  of  his  sight,  and  of  a  hand  and  foot.  His  father 
turns  him  away  from  his  door,  and  the  peasants  who  had 
suffered  at  his  hands  hang  him  on  a  tree.  Meier  Helmbreht^ 
which  was  written  between  1234  and  1250,  is  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  great  Court  epics.  Its  principal  charm  lies 
in  the  freshness  and  actuality  of  its  descriptions ;  the  details 
of  everyday  life  have  an  interest  for  its  author  which  con- 
trasts strongly  with  the  aristocratic  indifference  of  the  poets 
of  the  beginning  of  the  century. 

It  was  only  to  be  expected  that,  as  a  more  naturalistic  con- 
ception of  literature  came  into  favour,  the  art  of  Gottfried  von 
Strassburg  should  be  better  appreciated  and  more  frequently 

Konrad  imitated.  As  far  back  as  1220,  Konrad  Fleck,  a  Swiss  poet, 
eck>  had  shown  himself  a  faithful  disciple  of  Gottfried  in  More 
und  Blanschftur?-  in  which  one  of  the  great  love  sagas  of 
the  middle  ages  is  retold  with  no  small  poetic  ability ;  and 
the  two  greatest  poets  of  the  later  time — Rudolf  von  Ems 
and  Konrad  von  Wurzburg — stand  completely  in  Gottfried's 
shadow. 

Rudolf  von  Rudolf,  the  older  of  these  two  poets,  takes  his  name  from 
Ems,  near  Chur  in  Switzerland,  where  he  was  vassal  (dienst- 
man)  to  a  Graf  von  Montfort.  His  poetic  genius  was  by  no 
means  proportionate  to  the  quantity  of  poetry  which  he  left 
behind  him:  he  belongs  rather  to  the  chroniclers  than  to  the 
poets.  He  sat,  it  is  true,  at  Gottfried's  feet,  but  he  had  not 
talent  enough  to  assimilate  what  he  learned  from  Gottfried : 
thus  the  latter's  influence  upon  his  poetry  is  limited  to  ex- 
ternal matters  of  style  and  form.  Rudolf  von  Ems  was  one 
of  the  learned  poets  of  Middle  High  German  literature:  in 
other  words,  he  was  able  to  seek  themes  for  his  poetry  in 

1  Ed.  E.  Sommer,  Quedlinburg,   1846,   and  W.  Golther  in  D.N.L.,  4,  3 
[1889],  233  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.        Ill 

Latin  sources.     The  story  of  JDer  gate  Gerhard,  for  instance,  Der gute 

— the  earliest  and  best  of  his  works, — is  taken  from  a  Latin  Gerhard- 
chronicle.     The  hero  is  a  merchant  of  Cologne  who  under- 
goes various  romantic  adventures   and   temptations  without 

losing  the  integrity  of  his  character.     Barlaam  und  Josaphat,  Barlaam 

again,  is  a  version  of  an  old  Buddhistic  legend,  which  found  u.nd '.,  . 

,T-      &         !.  .     Josaphat. 

its  way  m  a  similar  guise  into  most  Western  literatures :  it 
tells  how  the  wealthy  and  magnificent  Prince  Josaphat  be- 
comes a  convert  to  the  asceticism  of  the  hermit  Barlaam. 
This  poem  of  Rudolf's  seems  to  have  been  widely  read, 
although  a  theological  asceticism  which  recalls  the  literature 
of  the  previous  century  hangs  heavy  upon  it.  These  two 
romances  were  probably  written  between  1225  and  1230. 

In  Wilhelm  von  Orlens  Rudolf  abandons  the  religious  legend  Wilhelm 
for  the  romance  of  chivalry.  This  is  a  poem  of  tedious  length, 
describing  the  adventures  of  Wilhelm,  in  whom  it  is  difficult 
to  recognise  the  Norman  Conqueror,  and  the  Princess  Amelie 
of  England.  Rudolf  had  more  opportunities  for  displaying  his 
learning  in  his  two  long  chronicle  romances — the  Geschichte 
Alexanders  des  Grossen  and  the  Weltchronik — neither  of  which 
he  lived  to  finish.  For  both  works  he  read  widely  in  the 
monkish  literature  of  the  age.  The  Weltchronik  follows  the  Welt- 
history  of  the  world  down  only  to  the  time  of  Solomon ;  but  chrontk- 
the  poet  is  liberal  with  digressions  which,  however  worthless 
from  a  poetic  point  of  view,  often  throw  an  interesting  light 
upon  medieval  ideas  of  history  and  geography.  After  Rudolfs 
death,  which  probably  took  place  about  1254,  the  Weltchronik 
did  not  suffer  from  lack  of  continuators.  Both  in  Rudolf's 
original  version  and  in  innumerable  versions  by  other  hands, 
it  enjoyed  great  popularity,  and  was  one  of  the  chief  sources 
from  which  following  generations  drew  their  knowledge  of  the 
Bible.1 

A  more  genuine  poet  than  Rudolf  von  Ems  was  Konrad   Konrad 
von  Wiir/burg,  whose  earliest  poems  were  written  not  long 
after  the  former's  death.     Konrad  is  the  greatest  poet  of  the   1287." 
last  generation  of  Middle  High  German  writers,  the  only  one 
who  can  in  any  way  be  compared  with  the  master-poets  of  the 
first  decade   of  the   century.     In  all  probability  a  native  of 

1  Der  gute  Gerhard  has  been  edited  by  M.  Haupt,  Leipzig,  1840  ;  Barlaam 
und  Josaphat  by  F.  Pfeiffer,  Leipzig,  1843.  Rudolfs  other  poems  are  either 
unpublished  or  not  yet  critically  edited.  Cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  543  ff. 


112          MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Legends. 


Der  Welt 
Lohn. 


Die 

goldene 
Schmiede. 


The  Herte 
mare. 


Wiirzburg,  he  seems  to  have  spent  some  time  in  Strassburg, 
and  finally  to  have  settled  in  Basle,  where  he  died  in  1287. 
Although  he  never  came  so  completely  under  clerical  influence 
as  Rudolf  von  Ems,  Konrad  von  Wiirzburg  has  also  left  a 
number  of  legends  of  a  religious  nature.  To  this  class  belong 
Alexius,  Silvester,  and  Pantaleon  * — poems  which  were  written 
for  patrons  in  Basle.  In  Der  Welt  Lohn  (Der  werlte  Ion)  he 
introduces  Herr  Wirnt  von  Gravenberg  in  person,  and  tells 
how  this  poet  was  converted  from  his  worldly  way  of  life  by 
means  of  "Frau  Welt,"  who  appeared  to  him  as  a  beautiful 
woman ;  when,  however,  she  turned  her  back,  he  saw  that  she 
was  a  monster  of  loathsomeness.  Die  goldene  Schmiede  is  a  lyric 
romance  in  honour  of  the  Virgin,  in  which  the  "  Marienlyrik  " 
of  the  century  reappears  as  a  fantastic  and  extravagant  allegory. 
Konrad  did  not,  however,  produce  his  best  work  until  he  had 
entirely  abandoned  religious  poetry.  Kaiser  Otte  mit  dem  Barte 
is  a  vividly  narrated  historical  anecdote,  and  the  Herzem&re 
one  of  the  best-constructed  of  all  the  shorter  Middle  High 
German  romances.  It  tells  of  a  knight  who,  at  his  mistress's 
command,  leaves  her  and  crosses  the  sea  to  Jerusalem,  where 
he  dies  of  a  broken  heart  His  last  request  is  that  his  heart 
may  be  brought  to  the  mistress  to  whom  in  life  it  belonged. 
The  lady's  husband  obtains  the  heart,  and  has  it  cooked  and 
served  up  to  her.  When  she  learns  what  she  has  eaten,  she 
declares  that  after  such  noble  food  she  will  never  eat  again ; 
and  she,  too,  dies  of  a  broken  heart.  It  is  in  a  poem  such  as 
this  that  Konrad  has  an  opportunity  of  displaying  what  he 
learned  from  his  master,  and  this  influence  is  even  still 
more  apparent  in  the  finest  of  all  his  shorter  romances, 
Engelhard.  Engelhard?"  The  fundamental  motive  of  Engelhard  is  not, 
however,  love  but  friendship ;  it  is  a  version  of  the  medieval 
saga  of  Amicus  and  Amelias  which  found  its  way  in  some  form 
or  other  into  all  European  literatures. 

Konrad's  two  longest  poems,  which  unfortunately  show  the 
formlessness  and  lack  of  proportion  of  the  decadent  epic,  are 

1  Silvester  has  been  edited  by  W.  Grimm,  Gottingen,  1841 ;    the  other  two 
poems  by  M.  Haupt  in  his  Zeitschrift,  3(1845)  and  6  (1848).     Cp.  D.N.L., 
4,  i,  3,  267  ff. 

2  Otte  and  the  Herzemare  are  edited  in  H.   Lambel's  Erxdhlungen   vnd 
Schwdnke,  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1883;   Der  werlte  Ion  by  F.  Roth,  Frankfort, 
1843 ;  Die  goldene  Schmiede  by  W.  Grimm,  Berlin,  1840 ;  and  Engelhart  by 
M.  Haupt,  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1890.     Cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  176  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.        113 

Partonopier  und  Meliur^  and  the  Trojanerkrieg?     Meliur,  in  Partono- 

the  first  of  these,  is  an  invisible  fairy  whose  love  Partonopier  ^r,"n^ 
:  J  .,  Meliur. 

enjoys ;  but  he  is  not  permitted  to  see  her  until  three  years 

have  passed.  Following  evil  counsel,  he  breaks  this  injunction, 
and  brings  down  the  wrath  of  the  fairy  upon  his  head.  As  a 
consequence  of  his  misdeed,  he  is  obliged  to  wander  through 
the  world  and  undergo  innumerable  adventures  before  he  ob- 
tains a  reconciliation  with  her.  Partonopier  und  Meliur  was 
originally  a  French  romance  which  Konrad,  himself  unfamiliar 
with  French,  was  obliged  to  have  translated  for  him.  In  his 
hands  it  became  an  epic  of  some  19,000  verses.  But  this  is 
little  more  than  one-third  the  length  of  the  Trojanerkrieg^  Der  Tro- 
which  is  the  longest  epic  in  Middle  High  German  literature.  JanerkrieS- 
The  basis  of  the  Trojanerkrieg  is,  naturally,  Benoit's  Roman 
de  Troie,  which  had  already  been  translated  by  Herbert  von 
Fritzlar.  Konrad,  however,  was  far  from  being  content  with 
the  materials  Benoit  afforded  him.  "  Ich  wil,"  he  says — 

"  ich  wil  ein  msere  tihten, 
daz  alien  mseren  ist  ein  her. 
als  in  daz  wilde  tobende  mer, 
vil  manic  wazzer  diuzet, 
sus  rinnet  unde  fliuzet 
vil  msere  in  diz  getihte  gr&z."1 

In  other  words,  this  epic  is  a  disorderly  collection  of  all  that 
the  middle  ages  knew  about  or  associated  with  the  Trojan 
war.  The  poet  died  before  his  poem  was  finished,  and  some 
unknown  hand,  which,  however,  had  little  of  Konrad's  cunning, 
wrote  the  final  10,000  verses.  On  the  whole,  the  Trojaner- 
krieg must  be  regarded  as  Konrad  von  Wiirzburg's  magnum 
opus,  and  that  not  merely  on  account  of  its  length :  tedious, 
uninspired,  as  any  one  who  tries  to  read  it  nowadays  will  find 
it,  this  epic  unrolls  a  wide  panorama  of  the  life,  the  customs, 
and  ideas  of  the  thirteenth  century.  It  admittedly  contains 
only  one  drop  of  poetry  to  oceans  of  prose,  it  is  formless  as 
almost  no  other  Court  epic  is  formless,  but  it  is  the  work  of  a 

1  Ed.  K.  Bartsch,  Vienna,  1870;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  279  ff. 

3  Ed.  A.  von  Keller  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  44),  1858;  notes  edited  by  K. 
Bartsch  in  vol.  133  of  the  same  series,  Stuttgart,  1878.  Cp.  D.N.L.,  I.e., 
311  ff. 

3  "  Ich  will  eine  Mare  dichten,  die  alien  Maren  ein  Meister  ist.  Wie 
in  das  wilde,  tobende  Meer  viel  [manches]  Wasser  rauscht,  so  rinnen  und 
fliessen  viele  Maren  in  dieses  grosse  Gedicht"  (11.  234-239). 

U 


114         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

poet  who  possessed  both  imagination  and  individuality.  For 
the  last  time  in  the  history  of  German  literature  we  here  find 
that  love  of  clear,  broad  contrasts,  that  simple  ethics  which 
admits  neither  of  doubting  nor  questioning,  and  that  childish 
idealism,  which  give  the  medieval  mind  its  characteristic 
stamp  :  here  for  the  last  time  the  courtly  graces  of  chivalry 
are  a  dominant  force  in  poetry. 

The  end  of  And  so,  under  the  mild  Indian  summer  represented  by 
the  Court  Konrad  von  Wiirzburg,  a  great  literary  period,  one  might 
almost  say  an  entire  literature,  passes  to  its  end.  Heinrich 
von  Freiberg,  who  completed  Gottfried's  Tristan^  Heinrich 
von  Neuenstadt,1  who,  about  1300,  wrote  a  lengthy  Apollonius 
von  Tyrus,  a  story  akin  to  the  pleasing  Mai  und  Beaflor'* 
of  a  few  decades  earlier,  Herrant  von  Wildonie,3  and  the 
unknown  Swiss  author  of  Reinfried  von  Braunschweig?  a 
romance  of  the  age  of  Heinrich  the  Lion — these  may  be 
regarded  as  the  last  representatives  of  the  Court  epic. 

1  J.  Strobl,  Heinrich  von  Neuenstadt,  Vienna,  1875  ;  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  374  ff. 

2  Ed.  F.  Pfeiffer,  Leipzig,  1848;  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  2,  369  ff. 

3  Cp.  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  410  ff. 

*  Ed.  K.  Bartsch  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  109),  1871 ;  D.N.L.,  4,  i,  3,  344  ff. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    MINNESANG. 

AT  Whitsuntide  in  the  year  1184,  Kaiser  Friedrich  Barbarossa 
held  at  Mainz  the  most  imposing  festival  Germany  had  ever 
seen.  The  flower  of  German  chivalry — princes,  knights,  and 
ladies — flocked  in  thousands  to  the  Rhineland  in  response  to 
the  Emperor's  invitation,  and  among  the  foreign  guests  every 
nation  of  Western  Europe  was  represented.  With  a  pomp 
and  splendour  and  colour  only  possible  in  the  age  of  chiv- 
alry, Barbarossa's  two  sons,  Heinrich  and  Friedrich,  went 
through  the  ceremony  of  the  "  Schwertleite," — that  is  to  say, 
were  raised  to  the  rank  of  knights.  The  Mainz  festival  is  an 
outstanding  event  in  German  history,  for  from  it  may  be  said 
to  date  the  nationalisation  of  chivalry  in  Germany  :  before  this 
time  only  a  French  fashion  affected  by  the  German  nobility, 
chivalry  now  became  a  German  institution.  And  on  literature 
also  the  festival  at  Mainz  acted  as  a  stimulus.  By  facilitating 
intercourse  with  France,  it  gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  that 
poetry  of  knighthood  which,  as  we  have  seen,  formed  the 
higher  stratum  in  the  literature  of  the  thirteenth  century.  And 
no  form  of  literature  responded  more  quickly  to  this  stimulus 
than  the  Court  Lyric  or  Minnesang. 

The  German  Minnesang l  is  based  essentially  upon  a  social 
convention ;  it  gives  literary  expression  to  what  the  German 
poets  called  "  Frauendienst,"  a  more  or  less  formal  worship 

1  The  two  chief  collections  of  the  Minnesang  are  the  Weingartner  MS.  in 
Stuttgart  (D), -edited  by  F.  Pfeiffer  and  F.  Fellner  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  5),  1843, 
and  the  great  Manessische  or  Heidelberg  MS.  (C).  The  latter,  which  is  at 
present  being  edited  by  F.  Pfaff  (Heidelberg,  1898  ff.),  is  the  most  beautiful 
of  all  the  old  German  MSS.  Besides  Lachmann  and  Haupt's  Des  Minnesangs 
Friikling,  and  F.  PfafTs  Der  Minnesang  des  12.  bis  14.  Jahrhunderts,  already 
quoted,  a  convenient  selection  of  the  Minnesang  is  K.  Bartsch's  Deutsche 
Liederdichter  des  12. -14.  Jahrkunderts,  4th  ed.,  Berlin,  1901. 


Il6         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

Minnesang  of  womanhood.  The  theme  of  the  Minnesingers'  poetry  is 
"  mmne>"  a  word  which  expresses  a  much  more  comprehensive 
idea  than  the  modern  "  Liebe  " ;  to  the  knight  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  "  minne  "  stood  for  an  entire  code  of 
social  conventions  which  regulated  the  relations  of  the  courtly 
lover  to  his  lady.  There  is  thus,  at  the  outset,  a  marked  differ- 
ence in  the  interpretation  of  the  word  "love"  on  the  part  of 
the  Provengal  Troubadours  and  the  German  Minnesingers. 
To  the  Romance  poets,  love  was  a  purely  personal  affair, 
and  illicit  attachments  were  usually  given  the  preference. 
The  German  mind,  on  the  other  hand,  spiritualised  the  senti- 
ment ;  the  Minnesinger's  love  for  his  mistress  widened  into 
an  all-embracing  reverence  for  womanhood;  "minne"  was 
an  ideal  attachment,  a  chivalric  devotion  to  a  woman,  closely 
akin  to  "  triuwe,"  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  the  highest 
virtue  which  the  German  knight  could  lay  at  the  feet  of  his 
liege  lord.  In  other  words,  the  Germanic  poet  took  love  more 
seriously  than  the  light-hearted  southern  singer ;  it  became  a 
guiding  force  in  his  higher  moral  life.  This  spirit  is  expressed 
by  the  greatest  of  the  Minnesingers  in  two  lines — 

"  Swer  guotes  wibes  minne  hat, 
der  schamt  sich  aller  missetat," 1 — 

lines  which  form  a  parallel  to  Goethe's — 

"  Willst  du  genau  erfahren,  was  sich  zieint, 
So  frage  nur  bei  edlen  Frauen  an." 

Thus,  below  the  conventions  of  the  Minnesang,  lay  a  fund 
of  noble  and  genuine  lyric  feeling.  Absurd  as  the  Minnedienst 
eventually  became,2  it  was  in  its  prime  one  of  the  main  outlets 
for  the  spiritual  aspiration  of  the  middle  ages.  Moreover,  to 
the  difference  between  the  Romance  and  Germanic  conceptions 
of  love  is  mainly  due  the  fact  that  the  German  medieval  lyric 
was  the  most  national  of  all  forms  of  Middle  High  German 
poetry.  Romance  influence  notwithstanding,  the  German 
Minnesang  remained  always  in  the  best  sense  German. 

The  earliest  of  the  great  Middle  High  German  epic  poets, 
Heinrich  von  Veldeke,  was  himself  present  at  the  Whitsuntide 

1  "  Wer  gutes  Weibes  Minne  hat,  der  schamt  sich  jedes  unrechten  Thuns  " 
(  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  ed.  Lachmann  and  MiilLenhoff,  93). 

2  See,  for  example,  Ulrich  von  Liechtenstein's  Frattendienst  (above,  p.  109), 
and  O.  Lyon,  Minne-  und  Ateistersang,  Leipzig,  1883,  53  ff. 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.       1 1/ 

festival  in  Mainz,  and  it  is  no  accident  that  he  should  have  Heinrich 
been  the  pioneer  of  the  new  epoch  in  the  lyric  as  well  as  in  ^eke  as 
the  epic.     With  Heinrich  von  Veldeke  the  Minnesang  comes   lyric  poet 
immediately  under  the  influence  of  the  French  lyric.     The 
poet  of  the  Eneit  reveals  himself,  in   more  than   fifty  lyric 
strophes  which    have   come  down  to  us,   as  a  naive,  light- 
hearted  singer,  a  characteristic  Rhinelander,  who  delighted, 
like    the    less    polished  Austrian    singers,   in   the  coming  of 
spring,  in  birds  and  flowers.     But  from   France  he  learned 
a  more  varied  repertory  of  melodies,  and  from  France,  too, 
came  the  new  tones  with  which,  here  as  well  as  in  his  epic, 
he  sang  the  praises  of  Frau  Minne  : — 

"  Von  minne  kumet  uns  allez  guot : 
diu  minne  machet  reinen  muot. 
waz  solte  ich  sunder  minne  dan  ?  "  1 

One  of  the  representative  German  Minnesingers  before  Friedrich 
Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  was  Friedrich  von  Hausen  Y°n 
(Husen),2  a  native  of  the  Middle  Rhine  district;  a  number 
of  other  singers,  whose  lyrics  are  preserved  in  the  great 
Lieder  MSS.  —  notably  Heinrich  von  Rugge,  Ulrich  von 
Gutenberg,  and  Bernger  von  Horheim — seem  to  have  come 
under  his  influence.  Friedrich  von  Hausen  is  an  excellent 
type  of  the  noble  Minnesinger  of  his  time.  He  stood  in 
more  or  less  intimate  relations  with  Barbarossa  and  his  sons, 
and  to  his  example  we  possibly  owe  the  song  which  appears 
in  the  Lieder  MSS.  under  the  name  of  the  elder  of  these  two 
sons,  Kaiser  Heinrich  VI.  He  accompanied  one  or  other 
of  them  to  Italy  and  France,  and  in  1190  met  his  death  in 
Asia  Minor  in  battle  with  the  Turks.  The  Provencal  element 
is  strong  in  Friedrich's  poetry;  but  in  addition  to  ProvenQal 
graces  and  that  characteristically  Provencal  fondness  for  dally- 
ing with  a  word,  as  seen  in  the  above-quoted  lines  from 
Heinrich  von  Veldeke,  Friedrich  von  Hausen  speaks  a  plain, 
straightforward  language,  which  brings  the  reader  into  touch 
with  the  man.  And  yet,  of  all  his  checkered  life,  it  may  be 
said  that  only  one  motive  has  passed  over  into  his  songs — 
the  yearning  of  the  wanderer  for  his  beloved  at  home.  The 

1  "Von  Minne  kommt  uns  alles  Gute ;   die  Minne  macht  reines  Gemut. 
Was  sollte  ich  ohne  Minne  thun?"     Heinrich  von  Veldeke's  lyrics  will  be 
found  in  Minnesangs  Friihling,  56  ff.     Cp.  D.N.L. ,  4,  i,  I  [1892],  65  ff. 

2  Minnesangf  Friihling,  42  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  8,  I,  17  ff. 


Il8         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Albrecht 
von  Jo- 
hannsdorf. 


Rudolf  von 
Fenis. 

Heinrich 

von 

Morungen. 


following  are  the  opening  lines  of  one  of  his  finest  songs, 
written  in  1189,  before  his  departure  upon  that  crusade  from 
which  he  did  not  return  : — 

"  Min  herze  und  min  lip  diu  wellent  scheiden, 
diu  mit  ein  ander  varnt  nu  mange  ztt. 
der  lip  wil  gerne  vehten  an  die  heiden  : 
s6  hat  iedoch  das  herze  erwelt  ein  wip 
vor  al  der  werlt."1 

In  Bavaria,  Albrecht  von  Johannsdorf,  who,  like  Friedrich  von 
Hausen,  followed  Barbarossa  on  the  crusade  of  1189,  struck  a 
more  primitive,  Germanic  note  than  his  brother-poet  of  the 
Rhineland,  while  in  the  extreme  south-east,  near  Neuchatel  in 
Switzerland,  Graf  Rudolf  von  Fenis  sang  love-songs  which 
are  all  but  directly  translated  from  the  Provencal.2 

A  greater,  if  less  immediately  influential,  poet  than  Friedrich 
von  Hausen  was  the  Thuringian,  Heinrich  von  Morungen, 
who  spent  the  last  part  of  his  life  in  Leipzig.  The  themes  of 
his  poetry  are,  it  is  true,  not  more  varied  than  Friedrich's, 
and  the  influence  of  the  Troubadours  is  quite  as  strong, 
but  he  has  a  wider  range  of  expression  and  more  originality. 
Heinrich  von  Morungen's  verses  have  a  strong  individual 
stamp ;  his  language  and  similes — often  strangely  modern — 
are  occasionally  lit  up  by  a  humour  that  reminds  us  of 
Wolfram  von  Eschenbach.  As  a  specimen  of  his  lyric,  a 
strophe  may  be  quoted  from  the  "Tagelied"  in  which 
two  lovers  alternately  express  their  affection,  each  verse 
closing  .  with  the  same  refrain  : — 

"  Owe,  sol  aber  mir  iemer  me1 
geliuhten'dur  die  naht 
noch  wizer  danne  ein  sne 
ir  lip  vil  wol  geslaht  ? 
der  trouc  diu  ougen  mfn. 
ich  wande,  ez  solde  stn 
des  liehten  manen  schtn. 
d6tageteez."3 

It  was,  however,  neither  Heinrich  von  Morungen  nor  Fried- 

1  "  Mem  Herz  und  mein  Leib,  die  wollen  scheiden,  die  mit  einander  fhhren 
lange  Zeit.  Der  Leib  will  gern  mit  den  Heiden  kampfen  ;  es  hat  jedoch  das 
Herz  ein  Weib  erwahlt  vor  aller  Welt "  (Minnesangs  Frithling,  47). 

1  Minuesangs  Friihling,  80  ff.  Cp.  also  K.  Bartsch,  Die  Schweizer  Minne- 
sanger,  Frauenfeld,  1886,  i  ff. 

3  "  O  weh  !  Soil  mir  je  wieder  [mehr]  leuchten  durch  die  Nacht,  noch  weisser 
als  [ein]  Schnee,  ihr  Leib  so  schon  gestaltet?  Der  betrog  die  Augen  mein. 
Ich  wahnte,  es  ware  des  liehten  Mondes  Schein.  Da  tagte  es  "  (Minnesangs 
/•'ruhling,  143). 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.       1 19 

rich  von  Hausen,  but  a  less  gifted  singer,  who  took  the  lead- 
ing position  among  the  German  Minnesingers  before  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide — namely,  Reinmar  von  Hagenau.1  By  Reinmar 
birth  an  Alsatian,  Reinmar  seems,  early  in  life,  to  have  found  a  Ha£enau 
home  at  the  Viennese  Court ;  his  lyrics  show  all  the  character-  ca.  1160-' 
istics  of  the  Austrian  Minnesang,  and  the  Provencal  elements  I2IO> 
are  more  Germanised  than  in  the  poetry  of  the  Rhenish 
singers.  At  the  same  time,  Reinmar's  lyric  was  essentially  a 
Court  lyric ;  if  it  avoided  the  formalities  of  the  Troubadour 
poetry,  it  fell  into  others ;  the  artificiality  of  the  life  in  which 
the  poet  moved  left  its  mark  upon  all  his  songs.  Of  the  early 
Minnesingers,  he  is  the  most  unrelievedly  elegiac ;  his  one 
theme  is  disappointed,  unrequited  affection.  Love  he  only 
saw,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  "  in  bleicher  varwe,"  and  this 
"  pale  hue "  gives  his  poetry  a  monotony.  Thus  although, 
after  Walther,  Reinmar  has  left  the  largest  quantity  of  lyric 
poetry  behind  him,  it  does  not  leave  an  impression  upon  us 
proportionate  to  its  mass.  But  he  possesses  a  special  claim 
upon  our  interest  from  the  fact  that  under  him  Walther  von 
der  Vogelweide  learnt  his  art,  and  when  Reinmar  died  about 
1 2 10,  Walther  sang  his  praises  in  a  noble  panegyric. 

Only  one  other  of  the  poets  of  the  "  Minnesang's  Spring-  Hartman 
time"  calls  for  notice  here,  Hartman  von  Aue.     The  same  vonAue- 
"  crystalline  "  poetry  is  to  be  found  in  Hartman's  songs  as  in 
his  epics,  and  while  the  personal  note  is  naturally  clearer  and 
fuller,  there  is  the  same  striving  to  reconcile  the  contradic- 
tions of  life  as  is  to  be  found  in  his  longer,  more  objective 
poems.      Hartman's  elegy  on  the  death  of  his  liege  lord  is  the 
most  heartfelt  expression  of  sorrow  in  the  early  Minnesang : — 

"  Sit  mich  der  t&t  beroubet  hat 
des  herren  min, 

swie  nil  diu  werlt  nach  im  gestat, 
daz  laze  ich  sin. 
der  frdide  min  den  besten  teil 
hat  er  dS  hin, 

und  schiiefe  ich  nii  der  sele  heil, 
daz  waere  ein  sin. "  a 


1  Minnesangs  Friihling,  150  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  8,  i,  63  ff.  Cp.  K.  Burdach, 
Reinmar  der  alte  und  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  Leipzig,  1880. 

a  "  Seit  mich  der  Tod  des  Herren  mein  beraubt  hat,  wie  nun  die  Welt  nach 
ihm  bestehen  mag.  das  lasse  ich  sein  (i.e.,  darum  ktimmere  ich  micht  nicht). 
Der  Freude  mein  den  besten  Teil  hat  er  dahin  (i.e.,  der  beste  Teil  meiner 
Freude  ist  mit  ihm  verloren  gegangen) ;  besorgte  ich  nun  der  Seele  Heil,  das 
ware  verntinftig  "  (Minnesangs  Friihling,  210). 


120        MIDDLE  HIGH  GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Walther 
von  der 
Vogel- 
weide,  ca. 
1170-1228. 


Walther 
in  Vienna. 


This  is  altogether  a  higher,  manlier  type  of  elegy  than 
Reinmar's  had  been ;  there  breathes  from  Hartman's  religious 
verse  a  pious  trust  in  God,  which  is  not  common  in  the  lyric 
of  the  early  thirteenth  century. 

The  "  spring-time "  of  the  Minnesang  passes  into  summer 
with  the  appearance  of  the  greatest  lyric  poet  of  the  middle 
ages,  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide.1  Data  for  Walther's  life 
are  as  rare  as  for  the  life  of  any  other  of  the  Middle  High 
German  poets,  but  the  fact  that  much  of  his  verse  is  political 
— that  is  to  say,  stands  in  relation  to  the  historical  events  of 
the  time — furnishes  certain  clues.  The  year  and  locality  of 
Walther's  birth  are  alike  unknown.  Beyond  the  name 
"  Vogelweide,"  which  was  probably  the  title  of  some  modest 
castle,  we  have  no  facts  which  might  help  us  to  identify  his 
birthplace  or  home.  For  a  time,  the  claims  of  the  Southern 
Tyrol  were  regarded  as  strongest,  but,  in  the  light  of  recent 
investigations,  several  other  places  would  seem  to  have  an 
equal  claim  to  this  distinction.  One  thing  alone  is  certain  : 
Walther  was  a  South  German ;  he  spoke  and  wrote  the 
Bavarian  dialect — that  is,  the  dialect  of  Bavaria  and  Austria. 
Born  about  the  year  1170,  he  was  of  noble  family,  as  his 
title  "  Herr  "  implies ;  but  he  was  poor — so  poor  that  he  was 
obliged  to  make  a  profession  of  his  art. 

At  an  early  age  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  came  to 
Vienna,  to  the  Court  of  Duke  Leopold  V.,  and  here  his 
talents  attracted  the  attention  of  Reinmar  von  Hagenau,  who 
was  some  ten  years  his  senior;  the  gentle,  almost  effeminate 
melancholy  of  Reinmar's  Minnesang  finds  an  echo  in  the 
young  poet's  earlier  lyrics.  Soon,  however,  a  fresher,  more 
youthful  exuberance  makes  its  appearance,  and  Walther's  lyrics 
become  careless  and  light-hearted.  A  number  of  poems  from 
this  first  period  have  even  been  grouped  together  as  referring 
to  a  serious  love  episode  in  Walther's  life.  There  is,  it  is  true, 
a  personal  note  in  these  songs,  but  the  poet's  feelings  are  still 
half-hidden  by  the  phrases  of  the  "  Minnedienst."  His  love 
would  seem  to  have  met  with  response,  but  secrecy  and  self- 
denial  were  necessary,  if  he  were  not  to  lose  his  mistress. 

1  Ed.  by  K.  Lachmann  and  K.  Miillenhoff,  6th  ed.,  Berlin,  1891 ;  by  W. 
Wilmanns.  2nd  ed..  Halle,  1883;  by  F.  Pfeiffer,  6th  ed.  (by  K.  Bartsch), 
Leipzig,  1880;  and  in  D.N.L.,  by  F.  Pfaff  (8,  2  [1895]).  Cp.  W.  Wilmanns, 
Leben  vnd  Dichten  Walthers  von  der  Vogelweide,  Bonn,  1882 ;  A.  E.  Schbn- 
bach,  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  (Fiihrende  Geisfer,  i),  2nd  ed.,  Dresden, 
1895;  and  K.  Burdach,  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  i,  Leipzig,  1900. 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      121 

To  this  cycle  of  songs  belong  probably  the  beautiful  strophes 
which  open  : —  « 

"  Der  rife  tet  den  kleinen  vogelen  we, 
daz  sie  niht  ensungen. 
nfl  h6rt  ichs  aber  wiinneclfch  als  e, 
nu  ist  diu  heide  entsprungen. 
da  sach  ich  bluomen  striten  wider  den  kle, 
weder  ir  lenger  wsere. 
miner  frouwen  seite  ich  disiu  msere."  l 

But  Walther's  love — if  this  personal  interpretation  of  his  lyrics 
is  justified — ended  tragically.  A  doubt  arose  as  to  whether 
his  lady  really  loved  him ;  then  strangers  came  between  them, 
and  at  last  the  poor  singer,  with  the  unscelikeit  in  his  heart, 
turned  his  back  upon  Vienna  and  wandered  out  into  the 
world.  This  was  in  1198. 

For  the  next  ten  or  twelve  years  Walther  was  a  "  fahrender  Walther 
Sanger,"  wandering  from  castle  to  castle,  and  dependent  upon  as  "Jjp1" 
the  generosity  of  ever-changing  patrons.     His  repertory  was  Sanger," 
made  up  not  only  of  his  own  songs,  to  which  he  composed   "98-ca. 
the  melodies  himself,  but  also  of  the  songs  of  others,  perhaps 
even  of  the  popular  romances  of  the  "  Heldensage."     Thus 
he  became  a  Spielmann,   but  being  of  noble  birth  and  a 
Minnesinger,  he  was  a  more  honoured  guest  than  the  ordinary 
singer  of  this  class.     He  was  often  entertained  for  weeks  and 
months   at  a  time   in   some   friendly  castle,  and  often,   too, 
during  these  long  periods,  a  love  adventure  would  spring  up 
between  the  singer  and  some  lady  of  high  degree.     In  the 
songs  which  belong  to  this,  the  second  period  of  Walther's  life, 
he  is  a  master  of  the  courtly  Minnesang.     It  is  not  known  when 
or  where  these  songs  were  composed,  nor  in  whose  honour 
they  were  sung,  but  doubtless  many  a  personal  experience  is 
reflected  in  them.     We  hear,  for  instance,  in  one  of  these : — 

"  Swa  ein  edeliu  schcene  frouwe  reine, 
wol  gekleidet  unde  wol  gebunden, 
dur  kurzewile  zuo  vil  liuten  gat, 
hoveltchen  h&hgemuot,  niht  eine, 
urnbe  sehende  ein  wenic  under  stunden 
alsam  der  sunne  gegen  den  sternen  stat."  * 


1  "Der  Reif  that  den  kleinen  Vogeln  weh,  so  dass  sie  nicht  sangen.     Nun 
horte  ich  sie  wieder  lieblich  wie  friiher  ;  nun  steht  die  Haide  im  frischen  Griin. 
Da  sah  ich  Blumen  streiten  gegen  den  Klee,  wer  von  ihnen  beiden  langer 
ware.     Meiner  Dame  sagte  ich  diese  Mare  "  (ed.  Lachmann,  114). 

2  "Wie  eine  edle,  schone,  reine  Frau,  wohl  gekleidet  und  wohl  gebunden 
(i.e.,  in  festlicher  Kleidung  und  mil  schon  aufgebundenem  Haar)  zur  Kurzweil 


122          MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

An  event  fraught  with  tragic  consequences  for  the  Holy 
Roman  empire  happened  in  the  autumn  of  1197.  Kaiser 
Heinrich  VI.,  Barbarossa's  son,  whose  strong  hand  had  terror- 
ised his  composite  empire  into  subjection,  died  unexpectedly 
at  Messina,  and  for  a  time  the  wildest  confusion  seemed 
imminent.  In  the  north  two  rivals  came  forward  for  the 
vacant  throne — Philipp,  Duke  of  Swabia,  and  Graf  Otto  of 
Poitou ;  while  in  the  south  the  new  Pope,  Innocent  III., 
showed  that  he  was  capable  of  a  wider  political  activity  than 
the  affairs  of  Italy  afforded  him.  The  empire  was  on  the 
His  politi-  brink  of  civil  war.  It  was  at  this  point  that  Walther  von 
cai  poetry.  ^eT  Vogelweide  began  to  employ  his  art  in  the  interests  of 
politics :  his  earliest  political  "  Spriiche "  were  composed  on 
behalf  of  the  Duke  of  Swabia. 

Walther's  political  poetry  is  unduly  overshadowed  by  his 
unpolitical  lyric ;  for  he  is  even  greater  as  a  political  poet  than 
as  a  Minnesinger  in  the  strict  sense  of  that  word.  He  was 
not  the  first  German  poet  to  draw  political  events  into  the 
sphere  of  poetry — for  that  we  should  have  to  go  back  to  the 
unknown  poet  of  De  Heinrico — but  he  was  the  first  of  the 
Minnesingers  to  write  political  verse.  This  side  of  Walther's 
work  is  obviously  a  direct  development  of  that  "  Spruch " 
poetry  which,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out,  was  one  of  the 
most  elementary  forms  of  the  Spielmann's  lyric.  But,  just  as 
the  national  epic  of  the  Nibelungenlied  sprang  from  the  union 
of  the  indigenous  Spielmann's  poetry  with  the  art  of  the  more 
polished  singers  of  the  Arthurian  epic,  so  in  Walther's  hands 
the  patriotic  German  "Lied"  arose  from  the  fusion  of  the  old 
Germanic  "  Spruch  "  poetry  with  the  art  of  the  Minnesang. 
Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  may  thus  be  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  that  national  and  patriotic  song  in  which  the 
German  literature  of  later  centuries  is  so  rich. 

Walther's  political  "Spriiche"  follow,  sometimes  despon- 
dently, but  more  often  in  a  tone  of  solemn  warning,  the 
wavering  fortunes  of  the  Swabian  pretender,  who  ultimately 
(1204),  in  spite  of  the  Pope,  gained  the  upper  hand  in  the 
German  empire.  Four  years  later,  however,  another  heavy 
blow  fell  upon  the  nation  :  Philipp  was  murdered  by  Otto  of 

zu  vielen  Leuten  (i.e.,  in  eine  grosse  Gesellschaft)  geht,  hofgemass  und  in 
freudiger  Stimmung,  nicht  allcin,  (sich)  umsehend  ein  wenig  von  Zeit  zu  Zeit, 
gleichwie  die  Sonne  gegeniiber  den  Sternen  steht "  (ed.  Lachmann,  46). 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      123 

Wittelshach.  How  this  catastrophe  affected  Walther  is  not 
known,  for  he  ceased  to  write  of  Philipp  as  soon  as  the  latter's 
prosperity  once  set  in.  Probably  the  oldest  of  his  "  Spriiche  " 
is  the  famous  one  which  opens  with  the  lines — 

"  Ich  saz  {if  eime  steine, 
und  dahte  bein  mit  beine  ; 
dar  uf  sast'  ich  den  ellenbogen  ; 
ich  hete  in  mine  hant  gesmogen 
daz  kinne  und  ein  min  wange," 1 — 

lines  which  were  obviously  in  the  minds  of  the  illustrators  of 
the  two  great  "  Lieder  "  MSS.,  for  both  depict  the  poet  in  the 
attitude  he  describes.  In  another  Spruch,  Walther  makes  a 
stirring  appeal  to  his  nation,  which  closes  with  the  words — 

"  S6  we  dir,  tiuschiu  zunge, 
wie  stet  din  ordenunge, 
daz  nfl  diu  mucke  ir  kiinec  hat, 
und  daz  din  ere  als6  zergat ! 
bekera  dich,  bekere  ! 
die  cirkel  sint  ze  here, 
die  armen  ktinege  dringent  dich."3 

But  the  best  idea  of  the  poetic  heights  to  which  Walther's 
political  lyric  could  rise  is  to  be  obtained  from  the  jubilant 
patriotic  song  which  he  wrote,  probably  in  Vienna,  about 
1203.  The  following  are  two  of  the  five  strophes: — 

"  Ich  han  lande  vil  gesehen 
unde  nam  der  besten  gerne  war  : 
libel  miieze  mir  geschehen, 
kiinde  ich  ie  min  herze  bringen  dar, 
daz  im  wol  gevallen 
wolde  fremeder  site. 

nu  was  hulfe  mich,  ob  ich  unrehte  strite? 
tiuschiu  zuht  gat  vor  in  alien. 

Von  der  Elbe  unz  an  den  Rin 
und  her  wider  unz  an  der  Ungerlant 
sd  mugen  wol  die  besten  sin, 
die  ich  in  der  werlte  han  erkant. 


1  "Ich  sass  auf  einem  Steine  und  deckte  Bein  mit  Beine  ;  darauf  setzte  ich 
den  Ellbogen  ;  ich  hatte  in  meine  Hand  geschmiegt  das  Kinn  und  eine  meiner 
Wangen  "  (ed.  Lachmann,  8). 

2  "So  wen  dir,  deutsche  Zunge  (i.e.,  deutsches  Volk),  wie  steht  deine  Ord- 
nung,  dass  [nun]  die  Mucke  ihren  Konig  hat,  und  dass  deine  Ehre  so  zergeht ! 
O  kehre  dich  um,  kehre  urn  !    Die  Zirkel  (i.e. ,  Fiirstcnkronen)  sind  zu  stolz,  die 
armen  Konige  (i.e.,  die  Bewerber  um  den  deutschen  Thron)  bedrangen  dich" 
(I.e.,  9). 


124         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

kan  ich  rehte  schouwen 

guot  geliz  und  lip, 

sam  mir  got,  s6  swiiere  ich  wol  daz  hie  diu  wtp 

bezzer  sint  danne  ander  frouwen."1 

In  Thu-  In  his  wanderings  Walther  was  frequently  a  guest  at  the 

ringia.  hospitable  Court  of  the  Landgraf  of  Thuringia;  here,  too,  it 
will  be  remembered,  he  came  into  personal  touch  with  Wolf- 
ram von  Eschenbach,  who  was  not  without  influence  upon 
Walther's  poetic  style.  In  1212,  when  Otto  IV.,  the  Guelf 
Emperor  who  succeeded  the  murdered  Philipp,  returned  from 
Italy  under  the  ban  of  the  Pope,  Walther  again  became  a 
political  singer.  The  action  of  the  Pope,  to  whom  Walther 
maintained  the  bitterest  antagonism,  was  alone  sufficient  to 
make  the  poet  an  active  partisan  of  the  new  Emperor.  Walther 
remained  faithful  to  Otto's  cause  as  long  as  he  could,  although 
he  received  but  scant  reward  or  even  thanks  for  his  pains. 
When,  however,  the  empire  reverted  once  more  to  the  dynasty 
of  the  Staufens,  and  the  young  Friedrich  II.  assumed  the  reins 
of  government,  Walther  found  in  him  a  worthier  as  well  as  a 
more  grateful  patron.  Friedrich's  generosity  enabled  the  poet 
to  pass  his  last  days  free  from  want.  In  1227  the  inevitable 
rupture  between  Friedrich  and  the  Pope  took  place,  and 
Walther  once  more  took  up  his  pen  to  do  battle  against 
Rome.  He  begged  the  Emperor  to  undertake  the  crusade 
which  the  Pope  had  forbidden,  and  two  songs,  which  are 
among  the  last  he  wrote,  might  suggest  the  inference  that  he 
had  himself  taken  part  in  Friedrich's  crusade  of  1228.  This, 
however,  is  improbable.  From  1228  on,  all  traces  of  Walther's 
life  are  lost,  but  it  is  not  likely  that  he  lived  to  greet  the 
Emperor  on  his  return  from  the  Holy  Land.  According 
to  tradition,  he  passed  his  last  years  in  Wiirzburg,  and  lies 
buried  there. 

Through  all  these  years,  the  political  events  of  which  are 
thus  fitfully  reflected  in  Walther's  Spruch  poetry,  the  poet's 

1  "Ich  habe  Lander  viel  gesehen  und  die  besten  gern  beobachtet ;  iibel 
miisse  mir  geschehen,  kbnnte  ich  je  mein  Herz  dazu  bringen,  dass  ihm  fremde 
Sitten  wohl  gefallen  sollten.  Nun  was  hiilfe  es  mir,  wenn  ich  unrecht  stritte 
(i.e.,  eine  falsche  Behauptung  verfbchte)?  Deutsche  Zucht  geht  ihnen  alien 
vor.  Von  der  Elbe  bis  zum  Rhein  und  wieder  zuriick  zum  Ungarland  mbgen 
wohl  die  besten  sein,  die  ich  in  der  Welt  kennen  gelernt  habe.  Kann  ich  recht 
schnrten  (i.e.,  verstehe  ich  mien  auf)  gutes  Benehmen  und  Sein,  mochte  ich 
wohl  schworen,  so  (wahr)  mir  Gott  (helfe),  dass  hier  die  Weiber  besscr  sind,  als 
anderswo  die  Frauen  "  (ed.  Lachmann,  56  f.) 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.       125 

own  life  seems  to  have  been  a  happy  one.  To  this  period 
belong  the  ripest  and  most  beautiful  of  his  love-songs.  In 
these  poems  Walther  has  freed  himself  from  the  shackles  of 
the  Court  Minnesang;  the  Provencal  conventions  of  the 
"  Minnedienst "  have  disappeared.  With  verses  like — 

"Mich  duhte  daz  mir  nie 
lieber  wurde,  danne  mir  ze  muote  was. 
die  bluomen  vielen  ie 
von  dem  bourne  bi  uns  nider  an  daz  gras. 
seht,  d6  muost'  ich  von  froiden  lachen. 
do  ich  s6  wunnecliche 
was  in  troume  riche, 
do  taget  ez  und  muos  ich  wachen,"1 — 

or  with  the  well-known  Under  der  linden,  the  pearl  of  Walther's 
lyric,  he  has  won  for  himself  a  place  among  the  greatest  lyric 
poets  in  the  literature  of  the  world  : — 

"  Under  der  linden 
an  der  heide, 
da  unser  zweier  bette  was, 
da  mugent  ir  vinden 
sch6ne  beide 

gebrochen  bluomen  unde  gras. 
vor  dem  walde  in  einem  tal, 
tandaradei ! 

schone  sane  diu  nahtegal. 

Ich  kam  gegangen 
zuo  der  ouwe  : 
d6  was  min  friedel  komen  £. 
da  wart  ich  enpfangen, 
here  frouwe  ! 

daz  ich  bin  sselic  iemer  me. 
kuste  er  mich?     wol  tusentstunt : 
tandaradei ! 

seht,  wie  rot  mir  ist  der  munt."2 

But  besides  love  lyrics  and  political  "  Spriiche,"  Walther  also 

1  "  Mich  dauchte,  dass  ich  nie  in  freudigerer  Stimmung  war,  als  mir  (damals) 
zu  Mute  war ;  die  Blumen  fielen  fortwahrend  von  dem  Baume  bei  uns  nieder 
auf  das  Gras.     Seht,  da  musste  ich  aus  Freude  lachen,  da  ich  so  wonniglich 
war,  im  Traume  reich ;   da  tagt  es  und  ich  muss  erwachen "  (ed.  Lach- 
mann,  75). 

2  "  Unter  der  Linde  auf  der  Haide,  wo  unser  beider  Belt  war,  da  konnt  ihr 
finden  schon  gebrochen  sowohl  Blumen  wie  Gras.     Vor  dem  Wald  in  einem 
Thai,  tandaradei  !     Schon  sang  die  Nachtigall.      Ich  kam  gegangen  zu  der 
Aue,  dahin  war  mein  Liebster  schon  gekommen.     Da  ward  ich  empfangen, 
hohe  Frau  !  dass  ich  fur  immer  [mehr]  selig  bin.      Kiisste  er  mich  ?     Wohl 
tausend  mal ;   tandaradei !     Seht,  wie  rot  ist  mir  der  Mund "  (ed.  Lach- 
nuuni,  39). 


126          MIDDLE    HIGH    GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

The  wrote  a  "  Leich  "  of  greater  length,  which  reflects  the  simple 

"Leich.       piety  of  medieval  Christianity,  and  an  elegiac  retrospect  upon 

his  own  life,  the  deepest  and  most  spiritual  of  all  his  poems. 

The  latter  opens  with  the  noble  lines  : — 

"Owe  war  sint  verswunden     alliu  miniu  jar  I 
ist  mir  mtn  leben  getroumet     oder  ist  ez  war? 
daz  ich  ie  wande  daz     iht  wsere,  was  daz  iht  ? 
dar  nach  han  ich  geslafeu     und  enweiz  es  niht 
nil  bin  ich  erwachet,     und  ist  mir  unbekant 
daz  mir  hie  vor  was  kiindic    als  min  ander  hant. 
liut  unde  lant,  da  ich    von  kinde  bin  erzogen, 
die  sint  mir  fremde  worden,     reht'  als  ez  si  gelogen. " ' 

Waither's  Walther  gave  the  note  to  the  "  flock  of  nightingales  "  of  the 
a°yricn ''  '  German  Minnesang  as  no  other  poet  of  his  time ;  he  is  the 
poet.  master  to  whom  all  look  up.  It  is  thus  important  to  under- 

stand wherein  his  greatness  consisted.  As  a  Minnesinger  in  the 
strict  sense  of  that  word — that  is  to  say,  as  a  Minnesinger  on 
the  model  of  the  Proven£al  poets — he  occupies  by  no  means 
an  isolated  position  among  his  contemporaries ;  it  is,  indeed, 
open  to  question  if  in  this  respect  he  may  be  placed  much 
above  Heinrich  von  Morungen ;  and  there  are  notes  in  Wol- 
fram von  Eschenbach's  handful  of  lyric  poetry  which  lay 
beyond  Waither's  reach.  Again,  as  a  singer  of  rural  delights 
and  uncourtly  sentiments,  there  was  among  his  successors  one 
poet,  at  least,  who  was  not  unworthy  to  stand  beside  him. 
But  Walther  was  something  more  than  a  great  singer  in  one 
particular  form  of  the  lyric :  he  was  great  in  all ;  none  could 
compare  with  him  in  the  breadth  of  his  poetic  range;  none 
has  left  so  considerable  a  body  of  lyric  poetry.  He  began,  as 
we  have  seen,  by  gathering  up  the  threads  of  the  German 
Minnesang,  as  it  existed  before  him ;  but  he  mastered  the 
half-Provengal  art  of  his  predecessors  only  to  destroy  it.  Like 
Klopstock  and  Goethe  nearly  six  centuries  later,  he  national- 
ised the  lyric :  in  place  of  an  aristocratic  art,  imitating  foreign 
models,  the  Minnesang  became  in  his  hands  an  expression  for 
the  lyric  aspiration  of  the  German  people. 

1  "  O  weh,  wphin  sind  verschwunden  alle  meinc  Jahre  I  Ist  mir  mein  Leben 
getraumt,  oder  ist  es  wahr  ?  Das  (von  dem)  ich  je  glaubte,  dass  es  etwas  ware, 
war  das  (wirklich)  etwas?  Danach  habe  ich  geschlafen  und  weiss  es  nicht. 
Nun  bin  ich  erwacht,  und  (es)  ist  mir  unbekannt,  was  mir  zuvor  kund  war  wie 
meine  andere  Hand  (i.e.,  wie  der  einen  Hand  die  andere).  Leute  und  Land, 
wo  ich  von  Kind  auf  erzogen  bin.  die  sind  mir  fremd  geworden,  gerade  als 
waren  sie  erlogen  "  (ed.  Lachmann,  124), 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      I2/ 

Walther's  influence  upon  both  the  Minnesang  and  the  later 
Meistergesang  was  far-reaching ;  until  the  Renaissance  began 
to  make  itself  felt  in  Germany,  no  singer  was  more  warmly 
appreciated  than  he.  It  was  Hugo  von  Trimberg  who,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  wrote  the  often-quoted 
lines — 

"  Her  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide, 
wer  des  vergsesse,  der  tset'  mir  leide." ' 

Even  in  modern  times,  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  still  en- 
joys something  of  his  old  prestige ;  of  all  medieval  poets,  none 
possesses  so  real  an  interest  for  the  modern  reader  as  he. 
Not  only  is  he  great  enough  as  a  lyric  poet  to  rise  above  the 
conditions  imposed  upon  him  by  his  time,  but  his  best  lyrics 
are  in  such  intimate  touch  with  nature,  they  have  broken  so 
completely  with  all  purely  literary  traditions,  that  he  speaks 
to  the  modern  world  almost  as  a  contemporary.  None  of  the 
great  singers  of  the  middle  ages  or  the  Renaissance — neither 
Petrarch  nor  Ronsard — appeals  to  us  to-day  as  does  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide. 

Among     his     contemporaries     there     is     only     one     who  Wolfram 
was  in  the  fullest  sense   his   peer,   the    Bavarian,   Wolfram  ]^°hea. 
von  Eschenbach.     Wolfram's  spacious  genius,  however,  was  bach, 
cramped  by  the  narrow  confines  of  the  Minnesang;  he  has 
left  only  eight   songs,   of  which   most    are   in   the    form    of 
"  Tagelieder."      To  him   life   was   not   so  simple   as   to  the 
majority  of  his  fellow-singers  and  his   songs  are  less  na'ive, 
but  they  reveal  an  imaginative  depth  and  dramatic  force — as 
when  the  watcher  on  the  tower  proclaims  to  the  sleeping 
lovers  the  coming  of  the  sun  in  the  words — 

"  Sine  klawen  durh  die  wolken  sint  geslagen, 
er  stiget  fif  mil  gr6zer  kraft "  2 — 

which  was  new  to  the  German  lyric. 

Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  left  no  school  behind  him  in  the  Walther's 
ordinary  acceptance  of  that  word,  but  the  German  Minnesang  contem- 
which  came  after  him  is  deep  in  his  debt.     Among  his  con- 
temporaries, Ulrich  von  Singenberg,  "  der  Truhsaeze  (Truchsess) 

1  "  Wer  dessen  vergasse,  der  thate  mir  leid  "  (Der  Rentier,  1218  f.) 

2  "  Seine  Klauen  durch   die  Wolken   sind  geschlagen  ;  er  steigt   auf  mit 
grosser  Kraft"  (K.  Bartsch,  Deutsche  Liederdichter,  3rd  ed.,  98). 


128         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Neidhart 
von  Reuen- 
thal,  ca. 
1180-1250. 


von  Sant  Gallen,"  seems  to  have  come  into  more  or  less 
intimate  personal  touch  with  him,  and  his  verse l  shows  a 
close  imitation  of  Walther's  style.  The  Tyrolese  nobleman, 
Leuthold  von  Savene  (Saben),  again,  was  a  more  original 
genius  ;  he  followed,  but  by  no  means  slavishly,  in  his  master's 
footsteps  as  a  poet  of  nature.2  In  general,  the  German  lyric 
after  Walther  falls  into  two  clearly  marked  groups  :  on  the 
one  hand,  the  conservative,  aristocratic  Court  Minnesang ;  on 
the  other,  the  freer,  more  untrammelled  lyric  of  nature,  songs 
inspired  by  the  life  of  the  people.  While  Walther  stands  at 
the  head  of  both  these  lines  of  development,  the  noble-born 
singers  who  remained  faithful  to  the  Minnesang,  like  the 
Swabian,  Hiltbold  von  Schwangau,3  preferred  to  take  as  their 
model  Heinrich  von  Morungen. 

The  future  of  the  German  lyric  did  not,  however,  lie  in  the 
hands  of  the  aristocratic  singers  of  courtly  love  :  not  Walther 
the  Minnesinger,  but  Walther  the  master  of  the  national  lyric, 
the  Walther  who  had  raised  the  songs  of  the  people  to  a  great 
art,  was  the  master  from  whom  the  next  generation  learned  its 
most  profitable  lesson.  The  greatest  poet  among  the  epigoni 
of  the  German  Minnesang,  the  Bavarian  nobleman  Neidhart 
von  Reuenthal  (Riuwental),  was  not  so  much  a  Court  singer  in 
the  strict  sense  of  the  word  as  a  master  in  the  art  of  popular 
song.  With  Neidhart,  who  was  born  probably  about  1180 
and  lived  till  the  middle  of  the  next  century,  begins  a  new  de- 
velopment of  the  lyric,  a  development  of  special  importance  for 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  "Volkslied."  Neidhart  is  the 
master  of  the  "  hofische  Dorfpoesie  " — that  is  to  say,  "  village 
poetry  under  court  influence,"  or,  more  shortly,  of  the  peasant 
lyric.  He  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  noble  ladies  :  he  goes 
out  among  the  peasants,  joins  in  their  dance  under  the  village 
linden,  or,  if  it  be  winter,  in  the  great  "  Bauernstube."  With 
a  naive,  often  childish  pride,  he  describes  his  various  con- 
quests of  village  beauties.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  conversa- 
tion between  mother  and  daughter  in  one  of  Neidhart's  earlier 
poems.  May  has  come  and  filled  the  woods  with  foliage,  and 
the  girl  longs  to  join  the  dancers,  but  her  mother  refuses  to 
allow  her.  She  begs  to  be  allowed  to  go : — 

1  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  129  ff. ;  D.N.L.,  8,  i,  121  ff. 
a  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  126  ff.  ;  D.N.L..  I.e.,  118  ff. 
»  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  68  ff. ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  81  ft 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE  HIGH  GERMAN   LITERATURE.      1 29 

"  Den  ich  iu  wil  nennen, 
den  muget  ir  wol  erkennen. 
ze  dem  s6  wil  ich  gahen. 
er  ist  genant  von  Riuwental  :    den  wil  ich  umbevahen. 

Ez  gruonet  an  den  esten 
daz  alles  mohten  bresten 
die  bourne  zuo  der  erden. 
nft  wizzet,  liebiu  muoter  min,     ich  volge  dem  knaben  warden. 

Liebiu  muoter  here, 
nach  mir  s6  klaget  er  sere, 
sol  ich  im  des  niht  danken  ? 
er  spricht  daz  ich  diu  schcenest  si    von  Beiern  unz  in  Vranken." 1 

This  is  the  form  of  the  majority  of  these  songs.  They 
usually  open  with  a  picture  of  the  season  ;  if  it  be  spring, 
the  poet  describes  the  woods  or  the  meadows  in  their  fresh 
beauty,  or  the  music  of  the  birds : — 

"  Nu  ist  vil  gar  zergangen 
der  winder  kalt, 
mit  loube  wol  bevangen 
der  griiene  wait, 
wunnecllch, 

in  sliezer  stimme  lobeltch, 
vr6  singent  aber  die  vogele,  lobent  den  meien. 
sam  tuo  wir  den  reien."2 

Then  follows  a  short  romance  or  love  adventure,  graphically 
narrated  in  a  sprightly  dance  measure.  The  winter  songs 
are  more  serious.  The  dances  in  the  "Bauernhof"  do  not 
always  pass  off  so  merrily  as  those  under  the  linden;  the 
rough  peasants,  whom  Neidhart  is  always  ready  to  satirise, 
dispute  with  him  the  possession  of  the  village  beauty,  and 
the  dance  ends  in  blows.  While  in  all  this  a  healthy  and 
pleasing  revolt  against  the  artificial  formality  of  the  Court 
poetry  is  to  be  recognised,  there  is,  at  the  same  time,  an 
element  of  degeneration  in  Neidhart's  lyric.  Walther  von  der 

1  "  Der,  den  ich  euch  nennen  will,  den  konnt  ihr  erkennen.     Zu  dem  will  ich 
[also]  eilen  ;  er  ist  genannt  von  Riuwental ;  den  will  ich  umfangen.     Es  griint 
an  den  Asten,  dass  alle  die  Baume  davon  zur  Erde  niederbrechen  konnten. 
Nun  wisset,  Hebe  Mutter  mein,  ich  folge  dem  teueren  Jiingling.     Liebe,  hohe 
Mutter,  nach  mir  klagt  er  so  sehr.     Soil  ich  ihm  nicht  dafiir  danken?    Er 
sagt,  dass  ich  die  schonste  sei  von  Baiern  bis  nach  Franken "  (Die  Lieder 
Neidhart s  von  Reuenthal,  ed.  F.  Keinz,  Leipzig,  1889,  18).     Cp.  K.  Bartsch, 
I.e.,  103  ff. 

2  "  Nun  ist  ganzlich  vergangen  der  Winter  kalt,  mit  Laub  wohl  bedeckt  der 
griine  Wald.     Lieblich,  mit  siisser  Stimme  feierlich,  froh  singen  wiederum  die 
Vogel,  loben  den  Mai.     Ebenso  tanzen  (/*'/.,  thun)  wir  den  Reigen  "  (I.e.,  45). 

I 


I3O         MIDDLE  HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


Neidhart's 
influence. 


The  Tan- 
hauser. 


Steinmar. 


Vogelweide,  who  did  not  look  upon  it  with  favour,  shows  a 
delicacy  in  his  songs  of  "niederer  Minne"  which  is  not  to 
be  found  here.  The  fabric  of  Neidhart's  poetry  is  a  little 
coarse,  and,  charming  as  are  his  vignettes  of  summer  and 
winter,  the  imagery  he  uses  is  not  original.  Thus  Neidhart 
von  Reuenthal  does  not  occupy  a  place  in  the  front  rank 
of  the  Minnesingers ;  he  is  not  even  to  be  compared  with 
the  singers  of  the  early  Minnesang,  such  as  Heinrich  von 
Morungen  or  Reinmar  von  Hagenau ;  but  he  was  the  most 
gifted  lyric  poet  of  his  time,  and  his  poetry  left  its  mark 
upon  the  German  Volkslied  for  at  least  two  centuries. 

His  influence  is  particularly  noticeable  on  a  group  of 
Swabian  Minnesingers  who  wrote  about  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century :  in  the  poetry  of  Burkart  von  Hohenfels, 
Ulrich  von  Winterstetten,  and,  most  gifted  of  the  three, 
Gottfried  von  Neifen,  there  is  an  attempt  to  combine  the 
courtly  Minnesang  with  the  later  peasant  poetry.1  Another 
poet,  to  whom  Neidhart  served  as  model,  was  "  the  Tan- 
hauser "  (Tanhuser),  a  singer  of  some  individuality.2  Al- 
though of  noble  family,  the  Tanhauser  evidently  led  the 
life  of  a  Spielmann.  He,  too,  shows  a  preference  for  dance 
measures,  but  he  seems  to  have  come  under  Romance  in- 
fluence. He  imitates  the  French  "Pastourel,"  a  form  of 
poetry  which  was  more  or  less  analogous  to  the  German 
peasant  lyric.  But  the  Tanhauser  remains  essentially  a  Spiel- 
mann, delighting  in  rough  humour  and  witty  satire,  even  when 
the  shafts  of  his  satire  are  directed  against  himself.  The 
ceremonial  Minnedienst  fares  badly  at  his  hands  :  his  songs 
proclaim  more  plainly  than  the  insincerities  of  Ulrich  von 
Liechtenstein  that  the  day  of  the  Minnedienst  is  past. 
Another  satirist  of  the  Minnesang  is  the  poet  known  as 
Herr  Steinmar,  probably  Steinmar  von  Klingenau  in  the 
Thurgau,  who  lived  in-  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  In  Steinmar's  verses,3  just  as  in  the  Tanhauser's, 
what  appears  to  be  satire  is  often  merely  a  reflection  of  the 
change  that  was  rapidly  coming  over  social  life.  Steinmar 
is  a  "  Bauerndichter,"  but  he  looks  upon  life  from  a  purely 
democratic  standpoint,  adapting  his  poetic  ideals  to  the  solid 

1  K.  Bartsch.  I.e.,  148  ff.,  155  ff.,  161  ff. ;  D.N.L.,  i.e.,  143  ff. 

2  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  193  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  185  ff. 
9  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  239  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  222  ff. 


CHAP.  VII.]      MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      131 

comforts    of   the  burgher's    life,   and  singing  the   glories   of 
autumn  instead  of  spring. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  we  meet  once 
more,  and  for  the  last  time  in  the  history  of  the  German 
lyric,  with  a  Minnesinger  of  the  old  type.  This  was  Meister 
Johannes  Hadlaub  (Hadloub),  a  citizen  of  Zurich,  and  friend  Johannes 
of  Riidiger  Manesse  and  his  son,  the  first  collectors  of  Hadlaub- 
German  Minnelieder.  As  a  poet,  Hadlaub  is  content  to 
imitate;  he  depicts  his  shy,  retiring  love  for  a  noble  lady, 
and  the  Minnedienst  in  which  it  expressed  itself,  in  verses 
that  are  constant  echoes  of  the  older  Minnesang.1  The 
incongruities  that  strike  us  in  Ulrich  von  Liechtenstein's 
poetry  are  still  more  conspicuous  in  the  lyrics  of  this  plain 
Zurich  burgher  of  more  than  a  generation  later.  Hadlaub 
also,  it  may  be  noted,  wrote  peasant  lyrics ;  but  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  there  was  even  as  much  sincerity  behind  his  rustic 
sentiments  as  behind  his  love  poetry. 

As  a  "  Spruchdichter,"  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide's  most 
important  successor  was  Reinmar  von  Zweter.2  This  poet  Reinmar 
was  born  on  the  Rhine  about  1200,  like  his  master  learned  ™n 
his  art  in  Austria,  and  lived  until  after  the  middle  of  the 
century.  His  "  Spriiche  "  afford  a  motley  commentary  upon 
the  life  of  his  time :  the  burning  questions  of  the  day  serve 
as  materials  for  satiric  or  didactic  treatment.  There  is  even 
a  slight  flavour  of  the  satire  of  a  later  age  in  Reinmar's 
attacks  on  erring  monks,  on  drunkenness  and  gambling; 
but  it  is  only  a  foretaste.  In  politics,  Reinmar  took  up 
the  war  against  the  Pope  where  Walther  had  left  it;  but 
nothing  demonstrates  more  clearly  how  inferior  a  poet 
Reinmar  was  than  do  these  political  "  Spriiche."  On  the 
modern  reader  his  poetry  leaves,  as  a  whole,  an  impression 
of  monotony,  for  it  is  almost  exclusively  in  one  form,  or, 
to  use  the  technical  expression,  in  one  "tone." 

Although  the  "  Spruchdichtung "  was  one  of  the  few 
forms  of  Middle  High  German  poetry  which  lived  on  until 
the  age  of  the  Reformation,  it  did  not  escape  the  universal 
process  of  decay  that  set  in  between  the  close  of  the  one 
epoch  and  the  beginning  of  the  next.  As  an  example  of  the 

i  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  268  ff.  ;  D.N.L.,  I.e.,  250  ff. 

a  Ed.  G.  Roethe,  Leipzig,  1887;  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  173  ff.,  and  D.N.L.,  I.e., 
i66ff. 


132          MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

medieval  Spruchdichtung  in  its  period  of  decay,   one   poet 
"The    (      must  suffice — the  so-called  "Marner,"1  a  Swabian,  who  was 
Marner.       murdered  as  an  old  man  about  the  year  1270.     The  Marner 
was  a  learned  poet,  who  could  write  Latin  verses  as  well  as 
German,  and  in  his  Spriiche,  which  form  the  greater  part  of 
his  verse,  he  displays  wide  theological  and  scientific  know- 
ledge.     Compared  with  Reinmar  von  Zweter,   his  range  is 
varied ;   but  the  variety  is  too  often  attained  by  sacrificing 
poetry  to  learning.      In    the   Marner's   poetry  the   tendency 
to  point  a  moral  has  obtained  the  upper  hand,  and,  unfor- 
Later          tunately  for  the  German  Spruch,  his  example  was  only  too 
dichter.        faithfully  imitated   in  the  following  centuries.      Didacticism 
is  the  disturbing  element,  not  only  in  the  lyrics  of  minor 
poets,  such  as  Meister  Boppe,  Rumezland  and  Regenbogen,2 
but  also  in  the  most  famous  of  all — Heinrich  von  Meissen, 
"the  Frauenlob."     Heinrich  von  Meissen  belongs,  however, 
to  the  succeeding  age  and  to  a  new  race  of  poets ;  he  is  not 
a  Minnesinger,  but  the  first  of  the  Meistersingers. 

1  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  179  ff. 

3  K.  Bartsch,  I.e.,  220,  226,  283. 


133 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


DIDACTIC    POETRY    AND    PROSE. 


AN  unconscious  and  unexpressed  belief  in  "  art  for  art's  sake " 
is  apparent  in  the  best  decades  of  Middle  High  German  liter- 
ature as  in  all  great  literary  periods.  The  unreflecting  singers 
who  sang  their  own  love-songs  or  told  their  tales  of  chivalry 
did  not  consider  too  carefully  means  and  ends ;  they  only 
thought  of  how  they  could  communicate  to  their  hearers  or 
readers  the  pleasure  they  themselves  felt.  But  as  reflection 
gradually  took  the  place  of  naivete',  and  the  didactic  spirit 
began  to  assert  itself,  the  unreasoning  idealism  of  the  old 
art  disappeared.  The  encroachment  of  this  spirit  upon 
Middle  High  German  poetry  was  one  of  the  earliest  indi- 
cations of  its  decay.  Didacticism  was,  however,  more  than 
a  purely  literary  or  intellectual  phenomenon;  it  was  associ- 
ated with  a  change  that  was  coming  over  the  whole  structure 
of  medieval  society — namely,  that  brought  about  by  the  rise 
of  the  middle  classes.  The  high-minded,  aristocratic  knight 
had  to  give  place  to  the  practical  burgher,  whose  life  was 
made  up  of  petty  interests  and  cares,  with  whom  even  religion 
assumed  a  sternly  practical  and  moral  aspect. 

Among  the  early  literature  of  this  didactic  nature  may  be 
noted  a  Tugendlehre,  a  collection  of  moral  apothegms  from 
the  Latin  classics,  translated  into  German  by  a  Thuringian 
churchman,  Wernher  von  Elmdorf,  and  a  German  version  of 
the  distichs  which,  in  the  middle  ages,  passed  for  Cato's  in- 
struction of  his  son  :  for  centuries  these  Disticha  Catonis  en- 
joyed popularity  as  a  school-book.  More  important  than 
either  of  these  works  is  the  so-called  Winsbeke^  written 

1  Ed.  M.  Haupt,  Leipzig,  1845 ;  Didaktik  aus  der  Zeit  der  Kreutsiige,  be- 
arbeitet  von  H.  Hildebrand  (D.N.L.,  9  [1888]),  151  ff. 


The  did- 
actic spirit 
and  the 
rise  of  the 
middle 
classes. 


Wernher 

von 

Elmdorf. 

The  Dis- 
ticha 
Catonis. 
Der 
Wimbcke. 


134         MIDDLE   HIGH  GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 


by  a  Herr  von  Windesbach,  in  Bavaria,  about  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  A  father  here  instructs  his  son — 
a  favourite  form  of  moral  text-book,  of  which  the  Disticha 
Catonis  was  the  model — in  the  virtues  and  duties  of  knight- 
hood. But  Der  Winsbeke  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  poem  of 
genuine  worth,  and  stands  on  a  higher  level  than  the  later 
didactic  literature  of  the  age.  The  author  has  escaped  the 
levelling  influence  of  clerical  or  middle-class  ideas,  and  still 
regards  the  ideals  of  knighthood  with  sympathy ;  his  poem  is 
thus  inspired  with  the  same  whole-hearted  faith  in  these  ideals 
which  we  find  in  the  Arthurian  epic.  The  following  is  a 
characteristic  strophe : — 

"  Sun,  wilt  du  erzenie  nemen, 
ich  wil  dich  leren  einen  tranc  : 
lat  dirz  diu  sselde  wol  gezemen, 
du  wirdest  selten  tugende  kranc, 
din  leben  si  kurz  od  ez  si  lane, 
leg  in  din  herze  ein  reinez  vvip 
mit  stseter  liebe  sunder  wane."1 

It  might  be  said  that  after  Ulrich  von  Liechtenstein's  Frauen- 
dienst,  Der  Winsbeke  forms  the  best  commentary  on  the 
knightly  life  of  the  thirteenth  century.  A  companion  poem 
— a  mother's  instruction  to  her  daughter — by  a  later  and  a 
Diu  Wins-  much  inferior  hand,  is  appended  to  the  Winsbeke  under  the 
title  Diu  Winsbekin. 

The  religious  element,  which  is  absent  from  the  Winsbeke^ 
is  particularly  strong  in  Der  welsche  Gas/,z  a  poem  of  some 
15,000  verses  written  by  Thomasin  von  Zirclaere,  whose  family 
— in  Italian,  Cerchiari — had  its  seat  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Udine,  in  north-eastern  Italy.  Thomasin  was  a  canon  in  the 
cathedral  of  Aquileja.  The  title  of  the  work,  which  was 
written  in  1215,  implies  that  it  was  sent  by  its  Italian  author 
into  German  lands  as  a  "guest."  In  Der  welsche  Cast  the 
religious  and  moralising  spirit  asserts  itself,  but  chivalry  is  not 
yet  dethroned.  Although  didactic,  there  is  nothing  biirgerlich 
in  its  tone;  the  lower  classes  do  not  exist  for  the  author, 
except  to  be  kept  in  their  place.  He  still  sees  in  the 

1  "Sohn,  willst  du  Arznei  nehmen,  (so)  will  ich  dich  einen  Trank  lehren ; 
lasst  die  Gliicksgottin  dir  es  angemessen  sein,  (so)  wirst  du  selten  schwach  an 
Tugend  (i.e.,  Tiichtigkeit)  (sein),  sei  dein  Leben  kurz  oder  sei  es  lang.     Lege 
in  dein  Herz  ein  reines  Weib  mit  steter  Liebe  ohne  Wanken  "  (14). 

2  Ed.  H.  Ruckert,  Quedlinburg,  1852  ;  selections  in  D.N.L.,  9,  120  ff.     Cp. 
A.  E.  Schbnbach,  Die  Anfdnge  des  deutschen  Minnesanges,  Graz,  1898,  35  ff. 


bekin. 

Thomasin 
von  Zir- 
cleere's 
Wehcher 
Cast, 
1215. 


CHAP.  VIII.]     MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      135 

Arthurian  epics  the  ideal  text -books  for  the  youth  of  the 
time,  but  they  have  only  worth  for  him  in  so  far  as  they 
are  edifying :  to  their  poetic  beauties  he  is  blind.  In  the 
eyes  of  this  clerical  Lombard,  the  root  of  all  the  evil  in  the 
world  is  unstcete,  "  lack  of  character,"  while  its  converse,  state, 
is  the  source  of  all  virtues.  To  do  justice  and  act  generously 
are  the  cardinal  virtues  of  the  noble  knight  Thomasin  is 
not  a  violent  champion  of  his  party,  but  his  strictly  clerical 
point  of  view  is  apparent  from  his  defence  of  Innocent  III., 
the  Pope  against  whom  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide  launched 
his  bitterest  diatribes.  He  endeavours  to  persuade  Friedrich 
II.  to  undertake  a  crusade,  and  would  gladly  see  all  heretics 
treated  as  they  were  treated  by  Duke  Leopold  of  Austria : — 

"  der  die  ketzer  sieden  kan  .  .  . 
er  wil  niht  daz  der  valant 
zebreche  sin  zende  zehant, 
swenner  si  ezze,  da  von  heizet  er 
si  sieden  unde  braten  ser."  * 

The  middle-class  spirit,  from  which  both  the  Winsbeke  and 
the  Welsche  Gast  were  free,  set  in  with  full  force  in  the  next 
work  that  has  to  be  considered,  Freidank's  Bescheidenheit?  the  Freidank's 
most  popular  didactic  work  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  ff//^^*" 
centuries.  Freidank  (Vridanc) — this  was  obviously  not  the  1215-30. 
author's  real  name — was  a  wandering  Spielmann,  but  of  his 
life  little  more  is  known  than  that  he  took  part  in  the  crusade 
of  1229.  His  work  may  have  been  begun  in  1215  or  1216, 
but  was  not  completed  until  after  his  return  from  the  East. 
Bescheidenheit  —  the  Middle  High  German  word  means 
"  wisdom,"  or,  more  accurately,  the  wisdom  that  comes  from 
experience  —  belongs  to  the  category  of  "  Spruch "  poetry. 
Freidank  writes  pithy,  epigrammatic  verses,  which  resemble  in 
form  the  strophes  attributed  to  the  Spervogel,  and  some  of 
Walther  von  der  Vogelweide's  political  poems.  There  is 
nothing  courtly  or  chivalric  in  his  work;  it  is  popular,  de- 
mocratic, coarsely  witty ;  many  of  the  epigrammatic  couplets 
might  have  come  direct  from  the  lips  of  the  people,  and 

1  "  Der  die  Ketzer  sieden  kann.   .  .  .   Er  will  nicht,  dass  der  Teufel  seine 
Zahne  sogleich  zerbreche,  wenn  er  sie  esse,  darum  heisst  er  sie  sieden  und 
braten  sehr"  (12,683  ff-) 

2  Ed.  H.  E.  Bezzenberger,  Halle,  1872,  and  F.  Sandross,  Berlin,  1877.    Cp. 
D.N.L.,  9,  251  ff. 


136         MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

have  passed  into  popular  proverbs.  Freidank  is  the  first 
forerunner  of  the  middle-class  poetry  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury ;  in  his  attitude  towards  Pope  and  Church  there  is  even 
something  of  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation.  Not  that  his 
religious  ideas  differed  materially  from  those  of  his  time — 
with  all  his  wit,  his  poetry  is  distinctly  pious  in  tone;  to 
trust  and  serve  God  is  in  his  eyes  the  beginning  of  all 
"  Bescheidenheit " — but  his  sympathies  are  with  the  Kaiser, 
and  he  is  not  blind  to  the  Pope's  failings.  After  all,  the 
Pope  is  but  a  man,  and — 

"  Zwei  swert  in  einer  scheide 
verderbent  lihte  beide, 
als  der  babst  des  riches  gert 
so  verderbent  beidiu  swert.  "1 

In  his  attitude  towards  the  monks,  Freidank  is  still  more 
outspoken.  He  sees  them,  in  spite  of  his  unquestioning 
religious  faith,  with  the  eyes  of  the  common  people ;  he 
does  not  attempt  to  conceal  their  weaknesses,  but  he  treats 
them,  on  the  whole,  with  an  easy-going  indulgence.  Once 
in  this  connection  he  reminds  us — 

"  Ich  weiz  wol  daz  ein  horwic  hant 
selten  vveschet  wiz  gewant. 
Wem  mac  der  luter  wazzer  geben, 
den  man  siht  in  der  hulvve  sweben  ? 
Swer  ramie  si  der  wasche  sich 
und  wasche  danne  ouch  mich. "  2 

But  there  is  nothing  in  his  verses  of  the  virulence  of  the 
next  century.  Freidank  is  not  a  satirist ;  he  is,  in  the  main, 
content  with  the  world  as  he  finds  it.  His  verses  repre- 
sent, as  those  of  no  other  poet  of  his  century,  the  ordinary 
outlook  of  the  German  people ;  they  are  a  proof  that  the 
literary  ideals  of  the  higher  classes  were  mainly  confined  to 
those  classes.  If  we  except  the  strophes  Von  minne  unde 
wiben,  it  may  be  said  that  the  ideas  of  chivalry  had  practically 
no  influence  on  Freidank. 

*  "Zwei  Schwerter  in  einer  Scheide  verderben  leicht  beide  (einander) ;  wenn 
der  Papst  nach  dem  Reiche  begierig  ist,  so  verderben  beide  Schwerter"  (152, 
12  ff.) 

2  ' '  Ich  weiss  wohl,  dass  eine  schmutzige  Hand  ein  weisses  Gewand  selten 
(rein)  wiischt.  Wem  kann  der  lauteres  Wasser  geben,  den  man  in  der  Pflitze 
schwimmen  sieht?  Wer  russig  ist,  der  wasche  (erst)  sich  und  wasche  dann 
auch  mich  "  (70,  6  ff. ) 


CHAP.  VIII.]     MIDDLE  HIGH  GERMAN   LITERATURE.     137 

To  a  much  later  date,  to  the  period  between  1283  and  Seifried 
1299,  belong  several  satiric  poems  written  in  Lower  Austria,  Helblin8- 
which,  with  all  the  realism  of  the  later  thirteenth  century,  paint 
the  social  change  of  the  age :  on  the  one  hand,  the  degener- 
ation of  the  knight  into  a  freebooter ;  on  the  other,  the  new 
ideal  of  womanhood  as  the  virtuous  "  Hausfrau."  The  form 
which  the  unknown  author  of  these  satires  prefers  is  the 
familiar  one  of  question  and  answer,  and  he  seems  to  have 
intended  that  at  least  the  longest  of  his  poems  should  bear 
the  title  Der  kleine  Lucidarius,  the  Lucidarius  being  a  popular 
encyclopaedic  work  in  Latin  which  had  served  him  as  model. 
All  the  satires  have,  however,  been  edited  under  the  name  of 
Seifried  Helbling,1  a  title  applicable,  strictly  speaking,  only 
to  one  of  the  poems,  which  purports  to  be  a  letter  from 
a  Spielmann  of  that  name. 

The   didactic   and   satirical    movement   in    Middle    High 
German  literature  may  be  said  to  culminate  in  Der  Rentier, 
by  Hugo  von  Trimberg,2  who  was  a  schoolmaster  in  Teuer-  Hugo  von 
stadt,   a  village  on  the   outskirts  of  Bamberg.     Der  Renner  Trimberg. 
was  written    at   the   turn    of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth   £er 

.       Renner,  ca. 

centuries,  when  the  author  was  comparatively  advanced  in  i30o. 
life;  it  seems  to  have  been  completed  about  1300,  but 
additions  were  made  to  it  until  as  late  as  1313.  It  was 
not  Hugo  von  Trimberg's  only  work ;  besides  Latin  poems 
which  show  great  learning,  he  wrote  seven  other  Ger- 
man poems,  although  the  title  of  only  one  of  these,  Der 
Sammler,  has  come  down  to  us.  In  the  Renner,  it  is 
evident  that  the  age  of  knighthood  is  past;  the  middle-class 
spirit  of  this  plain -minded  although  learned  schoolmaster 
makes  short  work  of  the  heroes  of  chivalry.  The  great  epics 
of  a  hundred  years  before  are,  in  his  estimation,  only  a  collec- 
tion of  lies.  His  own  poem  is  based — so  far  as  it  can  be 
said  to.  have  a  plan  at  all — upon  the  allegory  of  a  pear-tree 
laden  with  ripe  fruit.  The  tree  is  Adam  and  Eve,  the  fruit 
mankind ;  the  wind  comes,  the  wind  symbolising  selfishness 
and  self-assertion,  and  shakes  down  the  pears ;  they  fall  into 
the  thorns  of  arrogance,  the  well  of  avarice,  and  the  grass  of 

1  Seifried  Helbling,  ed.  J.  SeemUller,  Halle,  1886.     Cp.  D.N.L.,  9,  195  ff. 

z  Ed.  by  the  Bamberg  Historische  Verein,  1833-36.  Cp.  Lehrhafte  Litter- 
atur  des  14.  und  15.  Jahrhunderts,  herausg.  von  F.  Vetter  (D.N.L.,  12,  i 
[1888]),  256  ff.  On  Hugo's  life,  see  K.  Janicke  in  the  Germania,  a  (1857), 
363  ff. 


The  Fran- 
ciscans. 


David  of 
Augsburg, 
died  1272. 


138          MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

repentance.  The  book  is  divided  into  parts,  each  of  which 
is  devoted  to  a  principal  vice  or  sin.  But  there  is  only  the 
shadow  of  a  plan,  for  Hugo  von  Trimberg  is  not  concerned 
about  artistic  considerations  of  form.  His  book  is  a  veritable 
"Renner,"  and  in  another  sense  from  that  intended  by  its 
author;1  it  "runs"  through  the  whole  range  of  human  life. 
The  writer's  attitude  towards  the  Court  epic  suggests  that  of 
a  later  Protestantism  towards  worldly  amusements,  but  he 
does  not  preach  asceticism.  On  the  contrary,  he  takes 
pleasure  in  seeing  people  innocently  happy  and  has  a  large 
fund  of  honest,  homely  humour  which  prevents  him  from 
losing  himself  in  religious  didacticism.  As  a  poet,  he  has 
not  the  ability  or  standing  of  Freidank,  from  whom  he  bor- 
rows freely,  but  the  popular  and  straightforward  way  in  which 
he  tells  his  story  gives  interest  to  his  verse  in  spite  of  its 
mediocrity. 

Another  factor  which  helped  to  disintegrate  the  higher 
social  life  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  the  rise  of  the 
Franciscan  order  of  monks.  With  them  passed  over  Europe 
another  of  those  waves  of  asceticism  by  which  the  religious 
life  of  the  middle  ages  was  from  time  to  time  rejuvenated. 
The  Franciscans  preached  the  renunciation  of  worldly  treasures, 
and  the  return  to  a  simple  life — virtues  which  were  naturally 
not  in  harmony  with  the  social  ideals  of  chivalry ;  but  their 
doctrines  received  on  this  account  a  warmer  welcome  from 
the  common  people,  and  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns. 
The  hearty,  popular  tone  in  which  these  monks  advocated 
their  principles,  the  practical,  and  at  the  same  time  not  un- 
poetic,  form  of  their  sermons,  appealed  to  the  hearts  of  the 
middle  classes.  To  two  Franciscan  monks  of  Bavaria  we 
owe  the  best  specimens  of  German  prose  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  David  of  Augsburg,  who  died  in  1272,  not  only 
preached  in  German — his  German  sermons  are  lost — but 
wrote  several  German  tracts,2  filled  with  the  glowing  enthusi- 
asm for  mysticism  which  was  to  be  so  important  an  element 
in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  coming  centuries,  and  his  scholar, 

1  The  title  is  explained  by  the  lines : — 

"  Renner  ist  ditz  buoch  genant, 
wanne  ez  sol  rennen  durch  di  lant." 


2  F.   Pfeiffer,   Deutsche  Mystiker  des  13.  Jahrhunderfs,    Leipzig,    1845,    r, 
309  ff. 


CHAP.  VIII.]     MIDDLE  HIGH  GERMAN   LITERATURE.     139 

Berthold   of   Regensburg   (ca.    I22O-72),1   was   the   greatest  Bertholdof 
German  preacher  of  the  middle  ages.     From  1250  onwards,  Regens- 
Berthold  wandered  from  one  end  of  South  Germany  to  the  120-272. 
other,  addressing,  mostly  in  the  open  air,  audiences  that  num- 
bered many  thousands.     His  language  has  all  the  qualities 
of  a  good  popular   prose ;    it   is   direct,   dramatic,   sincere ; 
but  Berthold  had  also  at  his  command  a  wealth  of  imagery 
which,  occasionally,  recalls  the  poetry  of  the  popular  epics. 
It  is  still  possible,  in  reading  these  sermons,  to  realise  the 
persuasive  energy  of  this  preacher   in    the  wilderness,  who 
thundered  against  the  vices  of  the  rich  and  called  sinners  to 
repentance,  until  his  hearers  threw  themselves  at  his  feet. 

Of  other  prose  in  this  epoch  there  is  not  much  to  say.  Other 
About  1220  Eike  von  Repkow,  an  Anhalt  knight,  wrote,  in  Prose- 
Low  German,   a  code    of  Saxon   law,   the   so-called  Spigel 
der  Saxen  or  Sachsenspiegel,   a  book   not  without   a  certain 
literary  interest.     It  was  widely  used,  and  called  forth  many 
High  German  imitations,  the  most  important  being  the  Land- 
und  Lehnrechtsbuch  or  Schwabenspiegel,  which  in  its  oldest  from 
was  probably  written  about  1260.     From  Low  Germany  came 
also    the   first  German  prose  chronicle,   the  Sachsenchronik, 
written  about  1237. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  Middle  High  German  litera- 
ture, regarded  as  a  whole,  is  its  simplicity :  no  other  period 
is  so  free  from  complex  developments.  This  simplicity  was 
not  attained,  as  to  some  extent  in  the  Old  High  German 
period,  by  the  sifting  process  of  an  imperfect  tradition ;  the 
conditions  of  German  life  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries  were  not  favourable  to  a  complicated  literary  activity, 
and  literature  was  restricted,  as  a  natural  consequence,  to 
certain  well-defined  channels.  Except  for  the  utilitarian 
writings  of  preachers  and  lawgivers,  prose  virtually  did  not 
exist,  and  apart  from  the  ecclesiastical  performances  referred 
to  at  the  close  of  Part  I.,  there  was  no  drama.  Thus  only 
three  main  categories  of  verse — romance,  lyric,  and  satire — 
are  left,  and  each  of  these  falls  again  into  two  divisions, 
corresponding  to  the  two  literary  classes,  namely,  the  Spiel- 
leute  and  the  Court  poets.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Spielmann 
drew  upon  the  popular  sagas  and  traditions  for  his  romances ; 
he  retold,  in  the  humorous,  careless  way  peculiar  to  him,  the 

1  Ed.  F.  Pfeiffer  and  J.  Strobl,  2  vols.,  Vienna,  1862-80. 


140          MIDDLE   HIGH   GERMAN    LITERATURE.      [PART  II. 

stories  of  the  Germanic  past.  The  Court  singer,  on  the  other 
hand,  preferred  the  romances  of  the  Arthurian  cycle,  which, 
early  in  the  twelfth  century,  had  received  an  aristocratic  stamp 
in  France.  The  German  national  epic  itself,  as  represented 
by  the  Nibelungenlied  and  Gudrun,  had  arisen,  as  we  have 
seen,  under  the  influence  which  the  tastes  of  the  higher 
classes  exerted  on  the  Spielleute.  The  clerical  poets,  who 
had  played  the  chief,  and,  indeed,  only  role  in  the  pre- 
ceding period,  ceased,  after  the  beginning  of  the  period,  to  be 
a  factor  in  Middle  High  German  poetry.  In  the  lyric,  the 
same  two  divisions  may  be  observed,  but  they  are  less  clearly 
marked.  The  aristocratic  Minnesang,  like  the  aristocratic 
romance,  owed  much  to  France,  but  it  became,  in  a  far  higher 
degree  than  the  Court  epic,  a  national  form  of  poetic  art. 
Almost  from  the  beginning,  its  position  in  the  lyric  poetry 
of  the  age  was  similar  to  that  which  the  Nibelungenlied  occu- 
pied in  the  epic,  and  to  find  a  specific  Spielmann's  lyric, 
or  its  equivalent,  we  are  obliged  to  turn  to  the  songs  of 
the  Goliards  and  to  the  Spruch  poetry.  The  Spruch  of 
the  Spielmann  contained  the  germ  of  the  later  national 
and  patriotic  song,  just  as  the  Spielmann's  epics  contained 
the  germ  of  the  national  epic.  And  in  the  Spruch  poetry, 
too,  the  satire  of  the  age  —  whether  aristrocratic  like  Der 
Winsbeke,  or  popular  like  Bescheidenheit  —  found  its  most 
congenial  outlet.  The  satirical  attempts  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries  were,  however,  insignificant  compared 
with  the  satire  of  the  following  age,  the  age  that  culminated  in 
the  Protestant  Reformation. 


PART    III. 

EARLY  NEW  HIGH   GERMAN   LITERATURE 
1350-1700 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    DECAY    OF    ROMANCE.       SATIRE    AND    BEAST    FABLE. 

FROM  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century  to  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth,  the  classical  language  of  the  Middle  High 
German  Court  poets  was  passing  by  gradual  stages  into  the 
modern  classical  German  of  Lessing  and  Goethe.  The  period 
we  have  now  to  consider  is  thus,  as  far  as  language  is  con- 
cerned, a  Transition  Period,  and  the  same  designation  might 
possibly  be  adopted  for  the  literature  of  the  period.  But 
the  literary  activity  in  Germany  between  1350  and  1700  was 
so  extraordinarily  varied  and  complicated  that  it  is  not  easy 
to  bring  it  under  a  general  title  of  this  nature.  Moreover, 
to  describe  as  a  Transition  Period  more  than  three  cen- 
turies of  a  nation's  literary  history,  centuries  which  included 
events  of  such  far-reaching  importance  as  the  Reformation 
and  the  Renaissance,  is  to  set  an  unduly  low  value  upon 
the  literary  activity,  or  upon,  what  is  hardly  less  important, 
the  dynamic  forces  at  work  behind  the  literature  of  the  age. 
The  word  "  Transition "  is,  however,  strictly  applicable  to 
two  stages  in  the  literature  of  this  period,  the  first  of  which 
lies  between  the  end  of  the  Middle  High  German  period  and 
the  age  of  the  Reformation,  the  second  between  the  Reforma- 
tion and  the  beginnings  of  modern  German  classical  literature. 
In  the  present  chapter,  we  have  to  turn  our  attention  to  the 
earlier  of  these  stages. 

With   the  close   of  the  Crusades,   chivalry  lost    its    ideal  Social 
background   and   the    orders    of  knighthood   were    deprived 
of  much  of  their  prestige.      But  the  disappearance  of  the 
crusader  was  only  one  of  many  causes  which  hastened  the 
decay  of  chivalry.      The  invention  of  gunpowder   changed 


144     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


The 
middle- 
class  spirit 
in  litera- 
ture. 


the  methods  of  warfare,  and  made  the  knight  of  the  old 
stamp  in  great  measure  superfluous.  The  issue  of  battles 
depended  more  on  masses  of  foot-soldiers  than  on  the  valour 
of  individuals.  At  the  same  time,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
increasing  stability  in  political  affairs — a  stability  which  was 
mainly  due  to  the  humanising  influence  of  the  knightly  classes 
— the  medieval  towns  rose  in  power  and  importance;  com- 
merce became  a  factor  of  greater  weight  than  it  had  ever 
been  before,  and,  by  virtue  of  their  wealth,  the  merchant 
citizens  became  rivals  of  the  nobility.  Thus  the  knightly 
classes,  who  had  formerly  represented  all  that  was  noble 
and  courtly  in  human  bearing  and  intercourse,  were  soon 
forced  to  struggle  sordidly  for  their  existence,  and  it  was 
little  wonder  that  the  lower  members  of  this  class  should 
have  degenerated  into  avowed  freebooters. 

When  we  consider  the  effects  of  this  social  change  upon 
literature,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  was  no  change  for 
the  better.  The  finer  graces  of  chivalry  had  no  counterpart 
in  the  towns,  where  life  was  honest  and  straightforward,  but, 
as  yet,  without  polish  or  culture.  Indeed,  the  social  gulf 
between  the  nobility  and  the  people  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  was  so  great,  that  when  literature  passed 
over  from  the  one  to  the  other,  it  had,  as  it  were,  to  go 
back  again  to  its  beginnings.  The  sense  of  beauty  and  the 
feeling  for  rhythm  which  had  been  laboriously  attained  by 
the  higher  classes  at  the  opening  of  the  twelfth  century, 
disappeared  as  completely  as  if  they  had  never  existed. 
Literature  became  once  more  crude  and  naive,  formless 
and  unmusical.  The  middle  classes,  it  is  true,  still  loved 
the  old  stories  of  chivalry  and  prowess,  just  as  when  in 
earlier  days  they  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  knightly  singer,  but 
now  that  they  themselves  had  become  the  tellers  of  these 
stories,  the  narrative  alone  remained ;  all  the  qualities  that 
made  such  stories  art  were  gone.  Their  place  was  taken  by 
unimaginative  simplicity,  a  jingling  doggerel  or  lumbering  prose, 
and  not  rarely  a  coarse  humour.  Instead  of  the  unworldly 
ideals  of  the  knight,  we  find  the  utilitarian  didacticism  which 
is  apparently  inseparable  from  the  middle -class  mind  in  all 
times.  This  is  the  general  characteristic  of  the  first  stage 
in  the  transition  from  the  middle  ages  to  modern  times;  it 
is  a  transition  from  the  literature  of  chivalry  to  that  of  the 


CH.  I.]       EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.        145 

burgher,  a  shifting  of  the  literary  centre  of  gravity  from  the 
nobility  to  the  middle  classes.  It  is  not  a  great  epoch,  but 
for  the  literary  student  it  is  an  epoch  of  importance.  In 
these  comparatively  "dark"  centuries  are  to  be  traced  the 
sources  of  modern  German  literature. 

The  romance  of  chivalry  died  hard.  Almost  as  late  as  the  Romances 
Reformation,  attempts  were  made  to  keep  the  old  traditions  of  chlvalry- 
alive  and,  especially,  to  preserve  the  great  art  of  Wolfram 
von  Eschenbach.  Between  1331  and  1336,  two  Alsatians, 
Glaus  Wisse  and  Philipp  Colin,  supplemented  Wolfram's 
Parzival  with  a  poem  which  is  more  than  twice  the  length 
of  Parzival  itself,1  and,  in  1400,  Hans  von  Biihel,  another 
Alsatian,  wrote  a  long  epic  based  on  the  Middle  High  German 
Mai  und  Beqftor,  entitled  Die  Konigstochter  von  Frankreich? 
Many  favourite  stories  of  the  thirteenth  century  were  told 
anew  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth :  we  possess,  for  instance, 
from  this  period  a  Trojanischer  Krieg,  an  Alexander  der 
Grosse,  and  the  so-called  Karlmeinet?  a  collection  of  sagas 
of  which  Charles  the  Great  forms  the  centre, — all  in  rhymed 
verses.  But  in  vain,  about  1450,  did  Puterich  von  Reicherts- 
hausen  (1400-69)  hold  up  Parzival  as  the  ideal  of  noble  man- 
hood; and  when,  towards  1490,  in  his  Buck  der  Abenteuer,  uirich 
Ulrich  Fiietrer,  a  poet  and  painter  of  Munich,  made  another  Fuetrer. 
vigorous  attempt  to  revive  the  Arthurian  sagas,  the  result 
was  almost  ludicrous.  The  ideals  of  chivalry  were  clearly 
incompatible  with  the  sober  everyday  life  of  the  German 
burgher. 

As    a    consequence  of   the  more    spiritual   trend    in    the-  Mysticism 
ology,   to  which  we   shall  return   in  a  subsequent   chapter,   ajjd 
a   strain    of  poetic   mysticism    made   its   appearance,   which 
may   be   regarded   as    a   starting-point    for    the    theological 
and  didactic  literature  of  the  sixteenth   century.     Heinrich 
von  Hesler's  poetic  paraphrase  of  the  Apocalypse,  Thilo  von 
Culm's  book  Von  den  sieben  Siegeln,  and  the  various  versions 
of  the  Speculum  humance  salvationis  are  typical  of  this  new 
movement.     An   allegory  of  the  chess   figures,   De  moribus 
hominum  et  offidis  nobilium  super  ludo  Scacorum  (ca.  1300),  by 

1  Ed.  K.  Schorbach,  Strassburg,  1888. 

2  Ed.  T.  Mersdorf,  Oldenburg,  1867.  ,. 

3  Ed.  A.  von  Keller  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  45),  1858.     Cp.  K.  Bartsch,  Uber 
Karlmeinet,  Niirnberg,  1861. 

K 


146     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  in. 


Herman 
von  Sach- 
senheim, 
died  1458. 


Maximilian 
I.,  1459- 
1519- 


Jacobus  de  Cessolis — in  German,  Das  Schachbuch l — enjoyed 
even  greater  popularity  in  Germany  than  in  Southern  Europe. 
A  similar  mystic  and  allegorical  tendency  is  noticeable  in 
purely  secular  literature;  in  fact,  we  find  in  the  German 
poetry  of  this  age  a  parallel  development  to  that  which  in 
France  had  culminated  in  the  Roman  de  la  Rose.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  onwards,  the  "love 
allegory"  appears  more  frequently  in  narrative  poetry.  The 
earliest  poem  of  this  distinctly  allegorical  nature  is  Der 
Minne  Lehre?  written  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century 
by  Heinzelein  of  Constance ;  the  best,  in  spite  of  its  com- 
plicated allegory,  is  Die  Jagd,  by  a  Bavarian  nobleman, 
Hadamar  von  Laber.3  An  important  poet  of  this  group  was 
the  Swabian,  Herman  von  Sachsenheim,  whose  home  was  also 
Constance,  where  he  died  in  1458.  Des  Spiegels  Abenteuer 
and  Die  Morin  (1453),*  by  this  writer,  are  elaborate  allegories, 
in  which  the  apparatus  of  the  Arthurian  epic  often  contrasts 
incongruously  with  the  popular  tone  and  humorous  satire. 
Die  Morin  takes  the  form — a  favourite  one  with  the  alle- 
gorical poets — of  a  trial.  The  "Mooress"  is  a  servant  of 
Venus  and  Tanhauser ;  she  accuses  the  author  of  the  poem 
of  inconstancy  in  love,  and  the  trial  takes  place  in  the 
Venusberg  with  the  result  that  he  is  acquitted.  Herman 
von  Sachsenheim's  allegory  is  occasionally  tedious,  but  Die 
Morin  is,  on  the  whole,  one  of  the  most  readable  German 
poems  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

On  the  boundary-line  between  the  middle  ages  and  modern 
times  stands  the  romantic  figure  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  I. 
(1459-1519).  Although  Maximilian  was  in  sympathy  with 
the  social  and  political  changes  of  the  new  age,  and  had  more 
than  a  catholic  tolerance  for  humanism  and  the  Renaissance, 
his  heart  was  with  the  old  epics  of  chivalry,  and  he  caused 
magnificent  manuscripts  of  them  to  be  prepared.  The  "  last 
of  the  knights,"  he  was  also  the  last  great  patron  of  medieval 
literature.  With  his  name  are  associated  two  semi-historical 


1  Cp.   F.   Vetter,   I^hrhafte  Litteratur  des   14.    vnd  15.   Jahrhundcrts,    i 
(D.N.L.,  12,  r  [1888]),  91  ff. 

3  Ed.  F.  Pfeiffer,  Leipzig,  1852.    Cp.  P.  Piper,  Hofische  Epik,  3  (D.N.L.,  4, 
i,  3),  518  ff. 

8  Ed.  J.  A.  Schmeller  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  20),  1850. 

4  Ed.  E.  Martin  (Stuttg.   Litt.  Ver.,  137),  1878.     Cp.  F.  Vetter,  I.e.,  i, 
163  ff. 


CH.  I.]       EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.        147 

romances.  The  first  of  these,  Der  Weiss  Kunig  (I5I2),1  is  Der  Weiss 
in  prose  and  virtually  a  chronicle  of  events  in  his  own  life  f""*ff' 
and  in  the  life  of  his  father,  Kaiser  Friedrich  III. ;  the 
second,  the  more  famous  Teuerdank  (Tewrdannck  ;  printed 
in  Niirnberg,  15  ly),2  although  also  a  kind  of  biography  of  the 
emperor,  is  in  verse  and  in  the  form  of  an  allegorical  romance. 
Neither  of  these  books  was  Maximilian's  unaided  work,  but 
their  construction  at  least  was  due  to  him.  Teuerdank  Teuerdank, 
is  an  epic  of  chivalrous  adventure,  in  which  the  virtuous  I5I7> 
hero,  from  whom  it  takes  its  name,  successfully  overcomes 
all  manner  of  trials  and  temptations.  The  ludicrously 
realistic  nature  of  many  of  these  adventures — as,  for  in- 
stance, when  a  villainous  Captain  Unfalo  attempts  the  hero's 
life  by  inducing  him  to  ascend  a  broken  stair,  to  walk  on  a 
rotten  piece  of  scaffolding,  or  approach  a  loaded  cannon  with 
a  light — shows  how  far  romance  had  degenerated  since  the 
time  of  Parzival  and  Tristan.  The  verses,  which  are  crude 
and  unpoetic,  were  probably  the  work  of  the  emperor's  scribe, 
Melchior  Pfintzing,  a  native  of  Niirnberg.  Teuerdank  has 
almost  no  value  as  literature,  but  it  enjoyed  considerable 
popularity  until  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. In  the  history  of  the  present  period  it  is  a  landmark 
of  importance,  for  it  is  the  very  last  poem  that  was  modelled 
on  the  Court  epic. 

With  the  fifteenth  century  began  for  Germany  the  age  of  Prose 
prose  :  here,  as  in  France,  the  medieval  verse  epic  had  to  romances- 
make  way  for  the  prose  romance,  and  so  strong  was  the 
current  of  the  time  that  even  the  very  classes  to  whom  we 
owe  the  epic  of  chivalry  assisted  in  bringing  about  the 
change.  The  daughter  of  a  Duke  of  Lorraine,  Grafin 
Elisabeth  von  Nassau-Saarbriicken,  is  the  author  of  one  of 
these  prose  romances,  Loher  vnd  Mailer  (1407),  which  is 
based  on  a  French  original ;  and  thirty  years  later,  the  same 
lady  again  translated  a  French  epic  into  German  prose — 
namely,  Hug  Schapeler-  (1437),  the  subject  of  which  is 
the  love  adventures  of  Hugo  Capet.  Besides  stories  of 
chivalry,  the  national  epics  were  told  again  and  again  in 

1  Ed.  A.  Schultz,  Vienna,  1891. 

2  Ed.  K.  Goedeke  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  16.  Jahrh.,  10),  Leipzig,  1878.    Cp. 
E.  Wolff,   Reinke  de    Vos  vnd  satirisch-didaktisc/u  Dichtung  (D.N.L.,   19 
[1893]),  213  ff. 


148     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  ill. 

prose,  and  many  of  them  in  the  form  of  "  Volksbiicher  "  are 
still  widely  read.  Occasionally,  as  in  the  Lied  vom  hiirnen 
o  Sey  fried?-  one  of  these  sagas  was  recast  in  rough  strophes, 
while  in  the  so-called  Dresdener  Heldenbuch  (1472),  which 
was  compiled  by  Kaspar  von  der  Ron,  a  native  of  Miinnerstadt 
in  Franconia,  the  Middle  High  German  Heldenbuch  was 
denuded  of  its  poetic  dignity,  and  rewritten  in  the  doggerel 
of  the  century.  But  prose  was  and  remained  the  favourite 
vehicle  of  expression. 
Comic  ro-  While  the  epic  had  thus  to  yield  to  the  prose  romance, 

mancesand  jj.  js  noj  surprising  that  another  genre  of  Middle  High  German 
anecdotes.  .     V.  *       p 

poetry  gained,  rather  than  lost  in  favour,  as  the  higher  epic 

deteriorated.  This  was  the  comic,  satiric  poetry  descriptive  of 
peasant  life,  the  beginnings  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  Meier 
Helmbrecht,  and  in  the  poetry  of  Neidhart  von  Reuenthal. 
An  application  of  the  peasant  epic,  which  commended  itself 
to  the  writers  of  the  fourteenth  century,  was  as  a  satire  of 
the  decaying  Court  poetry  ;  and  it  is  in  this  form  that  the 
comic  epic  first  appears  in  German  literature.  In  the  four- 
teenth century,  a  Swabian  poet  wrote  a  short  poem  on 
the  marriage  of  a  peasant  girl,  and  in  the  first  half  of 
the  following  one,  Heinrich  Wittenweiler,  a  Swiss,  parodied 
the  whole  apparatus  of  chivalry  in  Der  Ring?  a  grotesque 
description  of  a  rural  wedding. 

The  short,  comic  anecdote  was,  however,  more  to  the  taste 
of  the  time,  and  more,  too,  within  the  power  of  the  writers 
of  the  time,  than  were  sustained  epic  narratives.  The 
Strieker's  Pfaffe  Amis  found  many  imitators  in  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries;  more  especially  from  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  onwards,  this  "  Schwankdichtung  "  plays  a  large 
role  in  the  literary  production  of  Germany.  To  the  last 
quarter  of  this  century  belongs  a  notable  collection  of 
anecdotes,  which  purports  to  be  the  work  of  the  Middle 
High  German  "Dorf"  poet,  who  reappears  here  as 
"  Neidhart  Fuchs  "  ;  and,  similar  to  them,  are  the  merry 
adventures  of  the  Pfaffe  von  Kalenberg.  The  Pfaffe  von 


von  Kalen-  Kalenberg  is  spirited  and  amusing,  but  strikes  a  coarser  note 

1  Ed.  W.  Golther  (Neudrucke  deutscher  Litteraturwerke  des  16.   und  17. 
SaArA.,  No.  81,  82).  Halle,  1889.    Cp.  P.  Piper  in  Die  Nibelungen,  i  (D.N.L., 
6,  2  [1889]),  143  ff. 

2  Ed.  L.  Bechstein  (Stuttg.   Litt.  Ver.,  23),  1851  ;  cp.  F.  Vetter,  Lekrhafte 
Litteratur  des  14.  und  15.  Jahrhunderts,  i,  415  ff. 


CH.  I.]       EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.        149 

than  its  Middle  High  German  prototype,  Amis.     The  author, 
Philipp  Frankfurter,  was  a  native  of  Vienna.     More  than  a 
generation  later,  Georg — or,   as  he  called   himself,   Achilles 
Jason — Widmann  published,  as  a  continuation  of  the  Pfaffe 
von  Kalenberg,    a   collection    of  witty   anecdotes   under   the 
title  Histori  Peter  Lewen.     And  the  traditionary  Spielmann's  Histori 
heroes,  such  as  Solomon's  witty  adversary  Morolf  or  Markolf,  ^^n 
still  remained  popular  favourites.1     But  all  these  "  Schwanke  "  ca.  1550. 
were  thrown  into  the  shade  by  the  stories  that  collected  round 
the  prince  of  rogues,  Till  Eulenspiegel.      Sly  in  the  guise  Till  Euien- 
of  honesty,  witty  while  pretending  to  be  only  stupid,  Eulen-  sp'^1- 
spiegel,  who  would  seem  to  have  been  a  real  figure  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  has  become  one  of  the  favourite  rascals 
of  the  German  imagination.     A  veritable  Reineke  Fuchs  in 
human  guise,  he  loves  nothing  better  than  misunderstandings, 
he  delights  in  mischief  purely  for  mischief's  sake,  and  his 
favourite  butt   is  always  the  townsfolk.      The   original,   un- 
doubtedly   Low    German    collection    of    Eulenspiegel's    ad- 
ventures,  which    dates    from    1483,   is  lost,   but   there   exist 
innumerable   High  German   versions — the   oldest,  printed  at 
Strassburg   in    1515,   under  the    title  Ein    Kurtzweilig  lesen 
von  Dyl  Ulenspiegel  geboren  vss  dem  land  zu  Brunsswick 2 — 
and  translations  of  Eulenspiegel  were  made  into  half-a-dozen 
European  tongues. 

In  these  centuries,  too,  floods  of  oriental  stories,  facetia  Anecdotal 
and  anecdotes,  spread  over  Germany  from  the  south,  the  first  "'terature. 
result,  as  far  as  literature  was  concerned,  of  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance. But  in  the  hands  of  the  translators,  the  coarseness 
of  these  stories  became  more  coarse,  and  the  wit  gave 
place  to  buffoonery.  From  the  fifteenth  century,  we  possess 
two  poetic  versions  of  the  collection  of  Eastern  "novelle" 
known  as  Die  Sieben  Weisen  Meister,  and  the  Gesta 
Romanorum  found  in  this  age  new  translators  and  new 
admirers.  Even  the  Church  saw  that  it  might  with  ad- 
vantage employ  this  popular  class  of  literature  in  the  form  of 
parable  and  fable.  In  1522,  a  Franciscan  monk,  Johannes 
Pauli,  published  a  semi-religious,  semi-didactic  collection  of 

1  Selections  from  these  collections  of  Schwanke,  edited  by  F.  Bobertag, 
Narrenbuch  (D.N.L.,  n  [1885]). 

a  Ed.  H.  Knust,  Neudrucke,  55,  56,  Halle,  1885.  Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  Volks- 
liicher  des  16.  Jahrhunderts  (D.N.L.,  25  [1887]),  i  ff. 


I5O     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 


J.  Pauli's 
Schimpf 
vnd  Ernst, 
1522. 


The  Beast 
Fable. 


Ulrich 
Boner's 
Edelstein, 
1349- 


H.  Stain- 
howel, 
1412 — ca. 
1482. 


B.  Waldis, 
ca.  1490- 
I5S6. 


anecdotes  and  adventures  under  the  title  Schimpf  (i.e.,  Scherz) 
vnd  Ernst)-  Pauli  is  an  excellent  story-teller,  above  all,  witty 
and  brief,  and,  even  when  most  didactic,  knows  how  to 
maintain  the  reader's  interest.  Schimpf  vnd  Ernst  enjoyed 
enormous  popularity  and  was  reprinted  upwards  of  thirty 
times.  To  the  Rollwagenbiichlein  of  Jorg  Wickram  (1555), 
and  the  Wendunmuth  of  H.  W.  Kirchhoff  (1563),  in  which 
the  anecdotal  literature  of  the  period  is  to  be  seen  at  its  best, 
we  shall  return  in  a  later  chapter. 

Still  another  form  of  literary  narrative,  one  which  had  lain 
dormant  throughout  the  Middle  High  German  period,  came 
into  prominence  in  these  centuries.  This  was  the  Beast  Fable. 
About  1349,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  period  we  are  con- 
sidering, a  Dominican  monk  of  Bern,  Ulrich  Boner,  translated 
a  hundred  Latin  fables  into  fresh,  humorous  verse,  pointed  with 
obvious  morals,  and  to  these  he  gave  the  title  of  De r  Edelstein? 
The  popularity  of  Boner's  fables  is  evident  from  the  fact 
that  the  Edelstein  was  the  first  German  book  to  be  printed 
(1461).  From  the  fifteenth  century  until  late  in  the 
eighteenth,  the  interest  which  the  German  people  took  in 
^Esop's  fables  showed  no  sign  of  diminishing.  Heinrich 
Stainhowel  of  Ulm  (1412-82  or  83),  who  also  translated 
Boccaccio's  Griseldis  (ca.  1471)  and  De  daris  mulieribus 
(1473),  made  a  Latin  collection  of  ./Esopian  beast  stories 
from  various  sources,  accompanying  them  by  a  translation  into 
German  prose.  This  Esopus^  was  printed  at  Ulm  between 
1475  and  1480,  and  remained  a  favourite  book  for  two 
centuries.  Of  more  importance  from  a  literary  standpoint  is  a 
famous  collection  of  fables,  the  Esopus,  Gantz  New  gemacht  vnd 
in  Reimen  gefasst,  mit  sampt  Hundert  Newer  Fabeln  (i548),4 
made  in  the  following  century  by  Burkard  Waldis  (ca.  1490- 
1556  or  57).  Waldis,  by  birth  a  Hessian,  was  a  Franciscan 
monk  in  Riga,  who  became  a  convert  to  Lutheranism.  His 
fables  are  consequently  tinged  with  the  anti-Catholic  polemics 
of  the  age,  but  they  are  vividly  told,  and  were  a  valuable 


1  Ed.  H.  Oesterley  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  85),  1866 ;  F.  Bobertag,  Vierhundcrt 
Schwdnke  des  16.  Jahrhunderts  (D.N.L.,  24  [1888]),  I  ff. 

2  Ed.  F.  Pfeiffer,  Leipzig,  1844.    Cp.  F.  Vetter,  I.e.,  i,  7  ff. 

8  Ed.  H.  Oesterley  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  117),  1873  ;  the  De  Claris  mulieribus, 
ed.  K.  Drescher,  in  the  same  series,  205,  1895.  Cp.  F'.  Vetter,  I.e.,  i,  87  ff. 

4  Ed.  J.  Tittmann,  2  vols.  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  16.  Jahrh.,  16,  17),  Leipzig, 
1882  ;  cp.  E.  Wolff,  I.e.,  273  ff. 


CH.  I.]       EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.       151 

mine  for  the  fable-writers  of  the  eighteenth  century.     More 
satirical  and  polemical  are  the  fables  which  form   the  Buck 
von  der  Tugent  vnd  Weiss  keif  (1550)  by  Erasmus  Alberus  (ca.   E.  Alberus, 
!  500-53).!  'fioo-S. 

The   Beast   Epic   proper,  however,  was   kept  alive,  not  in 
High  German,  but  in  Low  German  lands.     About  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  Willem,  an  East  Flemish  poet,  made 
an  admirable  version  of  that  part  of  the  French  Roman  de 
Renart  which  describes  how  the  Lion  held  his  court.     The  Willem's 
Fox  "  Reinaert "  is  condemned  to  die,  but  obtains  a  respite  by  ^£ly™rt 
promising  to  show  the  Lion  hidden  treasure,  and  is  set  wholly  Ca.  1250. 
at  liberty  on  condition  that  he  makes  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome. 
The  Bear  and  the  Wolf  provide  Reinaert  with  pouch  and  shoes 
made  from  their  skins,  and  the  rascal  of  course  escapes  scot- 
free.     In  a  second  Flemish,  or  rather  West  Flemish,  version,2 
written  about   1375,  the  story  is  remodelled  and  extended. 
In  both  these  versions  the  satiric  and  didactic  spirit  which 
seems  to  be  inseparable  from  the  Beast  epic  in  all  its  forms 
is  present,  but  it  first  takes  a  prominent   part  in   a  version 
from  the  fifteenth  century  by  Hinrik  van  Alkmar.     This  writer  Hinrik  van 
divided  the  story  into  books  and  chapters,  providing  each  with  Alkmar- 
a  prose  commentary  in  which  the  moral  and  religious  bearings 
of   the    poem    were    set    forth.       Only   a  few   fragments    of 
Hinrik's  version  have  reached  us,  but  an  unknown  Low  Saxon 
poet  made  a  translation  of  it,  which  was  printed  under  the 
title  Reynke  de  Vos?  at  Liibeck  in   1498. 

Reynke  de  Vos  is  the  most  famous  literary  work  the  Low  Reynke  de 
German  peoples  have  produced :  its  witty,  incisive  humour  Vo3y  I498< 
and  sly  satire,  the  naturalness  of  its  diction,  the  skill  with 
which  the  various  animals  are  characterised,  above  all,  the 
human  interest  of  Reynke's  adventures,  have  made  it  one  of 
the  most  popular  German  books  of  all  times,  and,  thanks 
to  Goethe,  this  popularity  is  hardly  less  widespread  now 
than  it  was  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Its  literary  influence 
on  the  satire  of  the  Reformation  age  was  especially  great,  and 
spread  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Germany.  As  in  the  earlier 
Flemish  versions  of  the  story,  Reynke  de  Vos  opens  with  the 

1  Ed.  W.  Braune  (Neudrucke,  No.   104-107),  Halle,  1892 ;   E.  Wolff,  I.e., 

347  ff- 

2  Ed.  E.  Martin,  Paderborn,  1874. 

3  Ed.    K.    Schroder,   Leipzig,  1872;  F.    Prien,   Halle,   1887;    E.  Wolff  in 
D.N.L.,  19  [1893]. 


152     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

Lion  holding  court ;  the  various  animals  bring  forward  their 
accusations  against  the  absent  Fox.  Brun  the  Bear  is  de- 
spatched by  the  king  to  Malepertus,  Reynke's  castle,  with 
orders  to  summon  the  culprit  before  the  court.  Reynke, 
however,  knows  Brun's  partiality  for  honey,  and  induces  him 
to  put  his  snout  into  a  tree  trunk  that  has  been  wedged 
apart.  Withdrawing  the  wedge,  he  leaves  Brun  to  the  mercy 
of  the  peasant,  from  whom  the  bear  only  escapes  with 
his  life.  Hyntze  the  Cat  is  now  sent  as  envoy.  The  sly 
Fox  soon  wins  Hyntze's  confidence,  but  objects  to  set  out 
at  once ;  he  says — 

"  '  Men,  neve,  ik  wyl  wol  myt  yu  ghan 
Morgen  in  dem  dagheschyn  ; 
Desse  rad  duncket  my  de  beste  syn. ' 

Hyntze  antworde  up  de  word  : 
'  Neen,  gha  wy  nu  rechte  vord 
To  hovewert,  vnder  vns  beyden. 
De  maen  schynet  lychte  an  der  heyden, 
De  ween  is  gud,  de  lucht  is  klar.'" 

"  But  if  I  remain  overnight  with  you,"  says  Hyntze,  "  what 
will  you  give  me  to  eat  ? "  To  this  Reynke  replies  with  sly 
humour — 

"  '  Spyse  gheyt  hir  gantz  rynge  to  : 
Ik  wyl  yu  gheven,  nu  gy  hir  blyven, 
Gude  versche  honnichschyven, 
Soethe  vnde  gud,  des  syd  bericht.' 

'  Der  ath  ick  al  myn  daghe  nicht,' 
Sprak  Hyntze,  '  hebbe  gi  nicht  anders  in  dem  husz  ? 
Ghevet  my  doch  eyne  vette  musz, 
Dar  mede  byn  ik  best  vorwart ; 
Men  honnich  wert  wol  vor  my  ghespart.'"1 

Reynke  is  willing  to  supply  his  guest  with  a  mouse,  and 
takes  him  to  the  house  of  the  neighbouring  priest,  who 
has  laid  a  trap  for  Reynke.  The  cat  is,  of  course,  caught 
in  the  trap,  and  only  escapes  as  did  his  predecessor  Brun. 

i  " '  Aber,  Neffe,  ich  will  gem  mit  euch  gehen,  morgen  in  dem  Tageslicht ; 
dieser  Rat  d'unkt  mich  der  beste  zu  sein.'  Hyntze  antwortete  auf  diese  Worte : 
1  Nein,  gehen  wir  gerade  jetzt  fort  nach  dem  Hofe  zusammen.  Der  Mond  scheint 
licht  auf  der  Haide,  der  Weg  ist  gut,  die  Luft  ist  klar ' "  (11.  986-993).  .  .  . 
' ' '  Speise  ist  hier  ganz  diirftig  vorhanden ;  ich  will  euch  geben,  da  ihr  hier  bleibt, 
gute,  frische  Honigscheiben,  suss  und  gut,  dessen  seid  belehrt."  'Davonass 
ich  alle  meine  Tage  nicht,'  sprach  Hyntze,  'habt  ihr  nichts  anderes  in  dem 
Hause  ?  Gebt  mir  doch  eine  fette  Maus ;  damit  bin  ich  am  besten  versorgt, 
aber  Honig  wird  wohl.  was  mich  anbetrifft,  gespart'  "  (11.  1002-10). 


CH.  I.]       EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.       153 

Finally  Grymbart  the  Badger,  who  is  friendly  to  Reynke, 
fetches  him  to  the  court.  He  is  tried  and  condemned  to 
death,  but,  as  in  the  older  versions,  escapes  by  telling  the  king 
of  a  hidden  treasure.  In  order  that  he  may  not  need  to 
accompany  the  king  on  his  search  for  the  treasure,  Reynke 
proposes  to  go  to  Rome : — 

"  Wente  Reynke,  he  wyl  morgen  vro 
Staff  vnde  rentzel  nemen  an 
Vnde  to  deme  pawes  to  Rome  ghan  ; 
Van  dannen  wyl  he  over  dat  meet 
Vnde  kumpt  ock  nicht  wedder  heer, 
Er  dan  dat  he  heft  vulle  afflat 
Van  alle  der  sundichlyken  daet. " l 

Lampe  the  Hare  and  Bellyn  the  Ram  accompany  him,  and 
the  trio  ultimately  reach  Malepertus ;  Lampe  is  invited  into 
the  castle  and  serves  Reynke  and  his  family  for  supper.  The 
Fox  then  packs  Lampe's  head  in  his  wallet  and  sends  it 
back  to  the  king  with  the  Ram  as  an  important  letter.  This 
is  practically  the  close  of  the  first  book  of  the  poem. 
The  remaining  three  books,  which  are  much  shorter,  are  in- 
ferior in  poetic  interest ;  the  didactic  element  assumes  greater 
proportions,  and  the  fact  that  the  general  outline  of  the  narra- 
tive is  the  same  as  in  the  first  books,  suggests  that  the  story 
was  extended  to  satisfy  the  popular  craving  for  a  continuation. 
But  even  the  later  parts  of  Reynke  de  Vos  only  foreshadow 
the  didactic  satire  which  ran  riot  in  this  age.  Four  years 
earlier,  in  1494,  the  most  famous  German  poem  of  its  time 
had  appeared,  namely,  Das  Narren  schyff,  by  Sebastian  Brant.2  Brant's 

The   idea   upon  which    this  work    is    based    is    of  frequent 

•     ^     i-i.  r  ^u     *•  j  u  •      i 

occurrence  in  the  literature  of  the  time,  and  was  obviously 

suggested  by  the  masquerades  of  the  carnival ;  all  the  fools 
typical  of  human  vices  and  follies  are  assembled  in  a  ship 
bound  for  "  Narragonien,"  but  the  ship,  being  also  steered 
by  fools,  drifts  aimlessly  on  the  sea : — 

"  Die  gantz  welt  lebt  in  vinstrer  nacht 
Vnd  dut  in  siinden  blint  verharren. 
All  strassen,  gassen,  sindt  voll  narren, 


1  "  Denn  Reynke,  er  will  morgen  friih  Stab  und  Ranzen  nehmen  [an],  und  ru 
dem  Papst  nach  Rom  gehen.     Von  dannen  will  er  iiber  das  Meer  undlcommt 
auch  nicht  wieder  her,  eher  als  [dass]  er  vb'lligen  Ablass  von  all  den  siindlichen 
Thaten  hat"  (11.  2602-8). 

2  Ed.   F.   Zarncke,  Leipzig,  1854 ;    K.  Goedeke  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  16. 
Jahrh.,  7),  Leipzig,  1872;  F.  Bobertag  in  D.N.L.,  16  [1889]. 


154      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 

Die  nut  dann  mit  dorheit  umbgan, 
Wellen  doch  nit  den  namen  ban. 
Des  hab  ich  gdacht  zu  diser  friist, 
Wie  ich  der  narren  schiff  vff  riist."  l 

But  Brant  does  not  carry  out  his  plan  consistently  or  sys- 
tematically, nor  does  he  introduce  to  any  extent  stories  or 
anecdotes ;  his  main  purpose  is  direct  ridicule  of  human 
follies  as  they  presented  themselves  to  him  in  the  life  of  his 
time.  His  book  is  an  orderless  collection  of  short  satires 
written  in  blunt,  rhymed  verse,  occasionally  with  an  osten- 
tatious display  of  learning.  From  fools  of  crime  and  arrogance 
to  rioters  and  spendthrifts,  from  meddlers  and  busybodies  to 
the  fools  who  cling  with  perverse  self-confidence  to  their  own 
ignorance,  Brant's  Narrenschiff  includes  every  type  of  folly 
that  the  fifteenth  century  had  to  show.  He  gives  a  faithful 
picture  of  that  moral  perversity  which,  in  the  age  of  the 
Reformation,  was  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the  clashing 
of  the  old  world  and  the  new. 

Sebastian  Sebastian  Brant  was  born  in  Strassburg  in  1457  or  perhaps 
u^y-i'  i  1458,  and  educated  at  the  University  of  Basle,  from  which,  in 
1489,  he  received  the  degree  of  doctor  utriusque  juris.  In 
1501  he  returned  to  Strassburg  on  account  of  the  separation 
of  Basle  from  the  German  empire,  and  here  he  remained  as 
town-clerk  until  his  death  in  1521.  Brant  not  only  grew 
up  in  the  school  of  the  humanists,  but  stood  in  Strassburg 
on  the  most  intimate  footing  with  them ;  his  own  earliest 
literary  attempts  were  Latin  poems.  Neither  these,  nor  his 
translations  from  the  Latin  (Cato,  1498),  have  much  import- 
ance for  literary  history ;  but  it  is  worth  noting  that  he  made 
a  new  version  of  Freidank's  Bescheidenheit.  He  is  now,  how- 
ever, only  remembered  by  the  Narrenschiff.  He  was  not 
a  man  of  progress ;  he  had  no  thought  of  reforming  either 
learning  or  religion.  He  saw  the  weaknesses  of  the  scholastic 
methods  of  instruction  and  satirised  them,  but  he  suggested 
nothing  better  in  their  place ;  he  dealt  vigorous  blows  at 
the  abuses  in  the  monasteries  and  among  the  priests,  but 
remained  to  the  end  a  faithful  servant  of  the  Church.  Like 
so  many  men  of  superior  culture  in  all  ages,  Brant  preferred 
to  look  backwards  to  a  golden  age  rather  than  forwards  into 

1   Vorrede,  11.  8  ff.  (11.  n  f.,  "  Die  nur  mit  Thorheit  umgehen,  wollen  doch 
nicht  den  Namen  (eines  Narren)  haben  "  ;  des  (1.  13),  "  deshalb  "}. 


CH.  I.]       EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.       155 


P.  Suchen- 
wirth- 


the  new  epoch  on  the  brink  of  which  he  unconsciously  stood. 
Nevertheless,  he,  too,  like  his  humanistic  friends,  prepared  the 
way  for  the  Reformation. 

Less  to  Renaissance  influence  than  to  the  abiding  influence 
of  medieval  tradition  is  to  be  ascribed  the  continued  vitality 
of  the  "Spruch"  poetry.  "  Reimsprecher  "  formed  acknow-  "Spruche. 
ledged  guilds  in  the  towns,  and  the  poet  who  could  recite 
an  appropriate  verse  upon  a  public  occasion  stood  higher  in 
favour  than  his  brother-poet  who  aimed  at  better  things. 
The  best  representative  of  this  literary  genre  was  an  Austrian, 
Peter  Suchenwirth,1  who,  in  the  second  half  of  the  four- 
teenth  century,  was  well  known  for  his  poems  in  honour  of 
princes  and  noblemen.  Suchenwirth  belonged  to  the  class 
of  "  Wappendichter,"  that  is  to  say,  poets  familiar  with 
heraldry,  who  wrote  poetic  descriptions  of  the  arms  of  the 
nobility.  In  his  verses,  as  in  so  much  else  that  has  been 
reviewed  in  this  chapter,  the  transition  of  the  age  is  vividly 
reflected,  the  passing  of  knighthood  and  the  rise  of  the 
middle  classes. 

The  kind  of  extempore  verse-making  in  which  Suchenwirt  ex- 
celled was  also  cultivated  in  Niirnberg  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
Here  the  particular  representatives  were  Hans  Rosenpliit,  Hans 
known  as  "the  Schnepperer,"  who  flourished  about  1460,  and 
Hans  Folz,  who  lived  some  fifty  years  later.  In  the  hands 
of  these  writers  the  extempore  "  Spruch  "  is  fused  with  the 
anecdote  or  "  Schwank  "  ;  with  them  begins  that  light,  half- 
moralising  method  of  relating  all  manner  of  anecdotes,  stories, 
events  of  the  day,  which  reached  its  highest  point  in  the  time 
of  Hans  Sachs.  Rosenpliit  and  Folz  were  predecessors  of 
Sachs,  not  only  as  Schwankdichter,  but  also  as  dramatists, 
for  to  them  we  owe,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  later  chapter,  some 
of  the  earliest  "  Fastnachtssoiele  "  or  Shrovetide  Plays. 

1  Ed.  A.  Primisser,  Vienna,  1827.  Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  Ertcihlen.de  Dichlungen 
des  spdteren  Mittelalters  (D.N.L.,  10  [1887]),  95  ff.  ;  and  F.  Vetter,  I.e.,  i, 
313  & 


Hans  F 
ca.  1510. 


1 56 


CHAPTER   II. 


MEISTERGESANG    AND    VOLKSLIED. 


and 

Meister- 

gesang. 


Minnesang  BETWEEN  Minnesang  and  Meistergesang  no  hard  and  fast 
line  can  be  drawn  ;  the  one  passed  slowly  and  gradually 
into  the  other,  the  chief  Minnesingers,  and,  above  all,  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide,  being  the  acknowledged  masters  of  the 
Meistersingers.  Nor  does  the  encroachment  of  the  middle- 
class  spirit  aid  materially  in  establishing  a  boundary  between 
the  two  forms  of  poetry,  for,  as  has  been  seen,  this  spirit 
is  to  be  found  in  the  best  period  of  the  Middle  High 
German  Minnesang ;  on  the  other  hand,  after  the  Meister- 
gesang was  firmly  established,  there  were  still  singers  of 
noble  birth  who  kept  alive  the  early  traditions.  At  the 
turn  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  we  meet 
with  two  noblemen,  both  of  whom  have  left  a  large  quan- 
tity of  lyric  poetry,  which  may  be  regarded  as  representing 
the  last  stage  of  the  decaying  Minnesang :  Graf  Hugo  von 
Montfort  (1357-1423)  and  Oswald  von  Wolkenstein  (1367- 

1445)- 

In  the  poetry  of  Hugo  von  Montfort,1  whose  castle  was 
situated  near  Bregenz  in  the  Vorarlberg,  the  singleness  of 
purpose  which  implies  a  fixed  literary  creed  is  missing;  at 
one  time  we  find  him  singing  the  praises  of  chivalry  with 
the  fervour  of  an  old  Minnesinger,  at  another  his  worldly 
life  fills  him  with  abject  remorse.  But  through  all  his  verse 
there  runs  a  strain  of  melancholy,  which  makes  his  person- 
ality of  interest  to  us  even  if  what  he  has  to  say  shows  little 
originality.  Much  more  important  than  Hugo  von  Montfort 

1  Ed.  J.  E.  Wackernell,  Innsbruck,  1881 ;  cp.  D.N.L.,  8,  i,  267  ff.,  and  12, 
i,  280  ff. 


Hugo  von 
Montfort, 
I3S7-I443- 


CH.  ii.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      157 

is  Oswald  von  Wolkenstein,1  a  Tyrolese  by  birth,  who  lived  Oswald 
a  wild,  adventurous  life.     As  a  lad  of  ten  years  of  age,  he  had  woiken- 
his  first  taste  of  war  in   the  campaign  of  Albrecht  III.  of  stein,  1367- 
Austria  against  the  Prussians,  and  for  fifteen  years  he  wandered   I'MS- 
about  the  world,  serving  many  masters  and  fighting  in  many 
lands,  from  Russia  to  Spain,  from  Scotland  to  Persia.     At 
the  age  of  twenty-five  he  returned  to  the  Tyrol,  but  there  was 
little  rest  for  him  here;  he  fell  in  love,  and,  in  compliance 
with  his  lady's  wish,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Hereupon    followed    more    adventures,    including    imprison- 
ment,   and   he   was   without   any   settled   home   until   com- 
paratively late  in  life.      Oswald  von  Wolkenstein's  poetry  is 
as  varied  as  was  his  career.     There  was  no  form  of  Middle 
High   German  lyric  at  which  he  did  not  try  his  hand  ;  at 
one  moment  he   pours  out   his  love-sorrows   in   the  strains 
of  the  Minnesang,  at  another  he  sinks  to  the  coarsest  tones 
of  the  degenerate    "  Dorfpoesie."      Lines   like  the   following 
are    a    pleasing    echo    of   the    Minnesang   of  the  thirteenth 
century  : — 

"  O  wunikltcher  wolgezierter  may, 
dein  suess  geschray 
pringt  freuden  mangerlay, 
besunderlich  wo  zway 
an  ainem  schcenen  ray 
sich  miitiklich  verhendelt  ban. 

Griin  ist  der  wald,  perg,  ow,  gevild  und  tal ; 
die  nachtigal 
und  aller  voglin  schal 
man  hceret  ane  zal 
erklingen  uberal."  2 

Oswald  von  Wolkenstein  was  a  man  of  wide  knowledge ; 
he  knew  many  languages  and  had  no  small  musical  talent 
He  composed  the  melodies  to  his  own  songs,  and  in  the 
use  of  rhymes  and  strophic  forms  shows  an  ingenuity  which 
even  the  Meistersingers  did  not  surpass ;  and  again,  he 
could  not  resist  occasionally  indulging,  like  the  later  Minne- 

1  Ed.  B.  Weber,  Innsbruck,  1847 ;  translations  into  modern  German  by  J. 
Schrott,  Stuttgart,   1886,  and   L.   Passarge   (in    Reclam's  Univ.  J3M.,  2830, 
2840),  Leipzig,  1891 ;   cp.  D.N.L.,  8,  i,  273  ff. 

2  "  O  lieblicher,  wohlgeschmiickter  Mai,  dein  susses  Geschrei  bringt  Freuden 
mancherlei,  besonders  wo  zwei  in  einem  schonen  Reigen  sich  mil  gutem  Mute   . 
bei  den  Handen  fassen.     Griin  ist  der  Wald,  Berg,  Aue,  Feld  und  Thai ;  die 
Nachtigall  und  aller  Voglein  Schall,  zahllos  hort  man  (sie)  iiberall  erklingen  " 
(B.  Weber's  edition,  203,  but  cp.  variants). 


158      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


The 

Meister- 

gesang. 


Singing 
Contests. 


Der  Wart- 
burgkrieg, 
ca.  1300. 


singers,  in  a  display  of  learning  and  scientific  lore.  But 
his  talent,  although  comprehensive,  was  deficient  in  delicacy ; 
it  is  indeed  a  dramatic  rather  than  a  lyric  talent,  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  preference  he  shows  for  the  more  dramatic  forms 
of  the  lyric,  such  as  the  "  Tagelied."  In  more  cultured 
times  he  would  possibly  have  found  a  truer  outlet  for  his 
genius  in  the  drama. 

The  general  characteristics  of  the  German  Meistergesang 
are  clearly  discernible  in  its  earliest  stages.  It  was,  in 
the  narrower  sense  of  the  word,  an  art,  an  artificial  affair 
of  laws  and  rules,  and,  being  such,  it  could  only  be  acquired 
by  a  special  training :  thus  the  Meistergesang  was  from  the 
first  associated  with  schools.  The  Meistersingers  would  have 
nothing  to  say  to  poets  who,  like  the  early  representatives  of 
the  Middle  High  German  lyric,  were  content  to  express  them- 
selves in  simple  measures.  The  day  of  an  unshackled  lyric 
poetry  was  clearly  past.  A  pedantic  display  of  learning,  a 
love  of  incongruous  imagery,  complicated  and  often  un- 
poetic  strophic  forms,  a  tendency  to  be  guided  by  precedents 
handed  down  from  earlier  singers,  and  lastly,  a  highly  developed 
combative  spirit,  a  fondness  for  disputing  and  wrangling  over 
unessential  points — these  characteristics  cling  to  the  Meister- 
gesang throughout  its  entire  history. 

An  essential  feature  in  the  schools  of  the  Meistersingers 
was  the  Singing  Contest.  One  poet  was  pitted,  as  it  were, 
against  another,  and  the  competition  decided  by  a  judge, 
the  so-called  "  Merker."  Or,  without  even  the  excuse  of  a 
contest,  one  singer  would  attack  his  brother  singer  in  the 
most  defiant  fashion  and  often  in  the  most  scurrilous 
language;  the  singer  attacked  replied,  and  so  the  fight  pro- 
ceeded. The  oldest  literary  example  of  such  a  "  Singing 
Contest"  is  the  poem  on  the  Wartburgkrieg^  which  dates 
from  about  1300,  if  it  is  not  still  older.  The  chief 
Minnesingers  are  represented  as  being  assembled  at  the 
Court  of  the  Landgraf  Herman  of  Thuringia.  A  certain 
Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen  challenges  all  comers  by  singing 
the  praises  of  the  Duke  of  Austria ;  he  is  prepared  to  defend 
him  against  any  three  other  princes.  Hereupon  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide  praises  the  King  of  France ;  Reinmar 
von  Zweter,  "the  Schreiber,"  and  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach 
i  Ed.  K.  Simrock,  Stuttgart,  1858. 


CH.  II.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      159 

champion  the  Landgraf  of  Thuringia.  Heinrich  von  Ofter- 
dingen  is  induced  by  Walther  to  compare  his  hero  to  the 
sun,  whereupon  the  defenders  of  the  Landgraf,  with  whom 
Walther  now  ranges  himself,  triumphantly  prove  that  the 
day,  to  which  they  compare  their  hero,  is  greater  than  the 
sun.  The  remainder  of  the  poem  is  taken  up  with  a  "  riddle 
contest "  between  Wolfram  and  the  magician,  Klingsor  von 
Ungerland,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  one  of  the 
figures  in  Wolfram's  ParzivaL 

The  last  of  the  Minnesingers,  and,  more  particularly,  those 
that  belonged  to  the  burgher  classes  in  the  towns,  were — as 
we  have  already  seen — the  founders  of  the  Meistergesang ; 
and  as  such  may  be  regarded  "the  Marner,"  "the  Frauen- 
lob,"  the  North  German  Meistersinger  Regenbogen,  and  the 
learned  Heinrich  von  Miiglin,1  who  seems  to  have  lived  mainly 
at  the  Court  of  Charles  IV.  in  Prague.  The  most  important 
of  these  was  Heinrich  von  Meissen,  known  as  "  the  Frauenlob."  Heinrich 
He  flourished  about  the  turn  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  ^-ssen 
century,  and,  like  the  Spielleute,  wandered  from  Court  to  Court,  (Frauen- 
and  from  one  end  of  Germany  to  the  other.  In  his  poetry  we  *°^'  ca>  g 
find  the  same  characteristics  as  in  that  of  the  Marner.  He 
loses  no  opportunity  of  displaying  his  learning ;  scholasticism, 
symbolism,  and  mysticism  are  mingled  with  his  verses  to  a 
degree  that  often  makes  them  incomprehensible ;  while 
astronomy,  mathematics,  and  natural  science  are  laid  under 
tribute  for  his  imagery.  At  other  times  his  poetry  suffers 
from  an  excessive  ingenuity  of  form ;  he  was  the  inventor  of 
many  new  "  tones  "  or  melodies,  which  were  accepted  by  his 
successors  as  models.  On  the  whole,  the  Frauenlob  is  at  his 
best  when  he  sings  the  praises  of  homely  virtues,  above  all,  of 
friendship  and  chaste  love ;  but  the  stamp  of  a  decaying  age 
is  on  the  main  body  of  his  verse.2  His  name  he  probably 
owes  to  a  "  Leich  "  which  he  wrote  in  honour  of  the  Virgin  j 
and  an  old  legend  tells  us  that  he  was  borne  to  his  grave 
in  the  Cathedral  of  Mainz  by  women. 

In  the  fifteenth  century,  the  chief  representatives  of  the 

1  K.  Bartsch,  Deutsche  Liederdichter,  179,  247,  283,  286 ;  the  Meistersingers 
themselves  regarded   their  guild   as   having   sprung    from    twelve    founders 
amongst  whom  were  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach  and  Walther  von  der  Vogel- 
weide. 

2  Ed.  L.  Ettmuller,  Quedlinburg,  1843.     Cp.  K.  Bartsch,  Deutsche  Liedtr- 
dichter,  247  ff.,  and  D.N.L.,  8,  i,  234  ff. 


160     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

Meistergesang  were  Muscatblut,  whose  lyrics  have  a  theo- 
logical tinge,  and  Michael  Beheim  (1416 — ca.  I480).1  The 
latter  began  life  as  a  weaver,  ultimately  turning  soldier 
and  wandering  Meistersinger ;  his  verses  have  little  real 
poetic  inspiration,  but  they  bear  the  stamp  of  the  poet's 
extraordinarily  varied  experiences.  The  great  age  of  the 
German  Meistergesang  was  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the 
The  singing  schools  and  guilds  had  reached  their  highest  point 

schulen "  °^  development.  There  is  a  tradition  to  the  effect  that 
the  first  of  these  schools  was  founded  by  Heinrich  von 
Meissen  in  Mainz ;  however  this  may  be,  they  are  to  be  met 
with  in  the  towns  of  the  Rhineland  as  early  as  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  from  the  Rhineland  they  spread  rapidly 
over  South  Germany.  Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  there 
was  a  school  at  Freiburg  in  the  Breisgau,  with  marked  religious 
and  scholastic  tendencies ;  a  little  later,  other  famous  ones 
sprang  up  in  Augsburg  and  Ulm,  and  in  Niirnberg,  Hans 
Folz,  who  came  from  Worms,  established  a  school  which, 
under  Hans  Sachs,  soon  became  the  most  important  of  all. 
The  aspirant  to  honours  in  these  poetic  and  musical  societies 
had  first  to  place  himself  as  "  Schiller "  under  the  tuition  of 
a  "  Meister,"  who  taught  him  the  elaborate  code  of  laws 
inscribed  in  the  "Tabulatur."  This  learned,  the  scholar 
became,  according  to  the  Niirnberg  nomenclature,  a  "  Schul- 
freund."  The  next  acquirement  was  to  be  able  to  sing  at 
least  four  acknowledged  "  tones  "  or  melodies,  which  entitled 
him  to  the  rank  of  "Singer."  A  still  higher  honour,  that 
of  "  Dichter,"  was  attained  by  the  composition  «of  a  new  text 
to  one  of  these  tones,  while  the  rank  of  "  Meister  "  was  only 
conferred  on  a  poet  who  had  invented  a  new  tone.  In  the 
later  schools  the  tones  were  designated  by  extraordinarily 
fantastic  names.  While,  for  instance,  the  early  Meistersingers 
were  content  with  simple  terms  like  the  Marners  Hofton, 
the  Bliithenton  Frauenlobs,  their  successors  in  the  sixteenth 
century  described  a  new  melody  as  a  Vielfrassweis,  Gestreiftsa- 
franblumleinweis,  Schwarztintenweis,  or  the  like.2 

1  Beheim's  Buck  von  den  Wienern  (1462-65),  ed.  T.  G.  von  Karajan,  Vienna, 
1843 ;    cp.    F.    Bobertag,    Ersahlende   Dichtungen  des  spdteren  Mittelalters 
(D.N.L.,   10),  277  ff. 

2  Cp.   O.    Lyon,  Minne-  und  Afeistersang,  Leipzig,  1882,  385  ff.  ;  Adam 
Puschmann's   Grundlicher  Bericht  des  deutschen  Meistergesangs  susamt  der 
Tabulatur,  &c.  (1571),  is  reprinted  as  No.  73  of  the  Neudrucke,  Halle,  1888. 


CH.  II.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.       l6l 

The  art  of  the  Meistersingers  was  not  favourable  to  the 
growth  of  genius,  and  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Hans  Sachs, 
a  real  poet  was  nurtured  in  their  school,  it  was  virtually  in 
spite  of  the  training  he  received.  The  artistic  barrenness  of 
the  Singing  Schools  and  the  lack  of  individual  genius  in  their 
members  were  the  real  reasons  of  that  slavery  to  tradition 
which  hampered  the  development  of  the  Meistergesang  :  it  was 
the  absence  of  inspiration,  rather  than  any  conscious  respect 
for  tradition,  which  made  the  Meistersingers  go  back  to  the 
founders  of  the  guild  for  the  laws  and  models  of  their  poetry. 
At  the  same  time,  the  indirect  importance  of  the  Meistergesang 
for  the  intellectual  movement  of  the  period  cannot  be  over- 
looked. It  represents,  more  perfectly  than  any  other  literary 
phenomenon,  the  awakening  of  the  burgher  classes  to  an  in- 
terest in  literature.  From  the  soil  provided  by  these  literary 
guilds  sprang,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  the 
most  promising  growths  of  a  new  national  literature ;  the 
schools  created,  above  all,  the  conditions  necessary  for  the 
development  of  the  drama.  The  greatest  of  the  Meistersingers, 
Hans  Sachs,  was  not  only  a  Meistersinger,  but  also  the  repre- 
sentative German  dramatist  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

Outside  the  Meistergesang  flowed  a  great  stream  of  primitive  The 
poetry  which,  even  in  the  darkest  ages  of  German  literature,  Volkslied- 
had  never  wholly  ceased — the  Volkslied.1  And  now,  under 
the  invigorating  influence  of  the  emancipated  burgher  classes, 
and  of  that  spiritual  freedom  which  preceded  and  accompanied 
the  Reformation,  the  Volkslied  entered  upon  a  new  stage  of 
its  history.  Although,  in  all  periods,  one  of  the  purest  and 
least  artificial  forms  in  which  the  literary  genius  of  the  German 
people  has  expressed  itself,  the  Volkslied  seems  in  these  par- 
ticular centuries  to  have  come,  as  never  before  or  since, 
straight  from  the  heart  of  the  nation. 

The  most  characteristic  form   of  Volkslied   in   the  period   Historical 
immediately   preceding   the    Reformation    was,   perhaps,    the     a       ' 
historical    ballad.      Comparatively  few  historical   Volkslieder 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  thirteenth  century,  but  in  the 

1  L.  Uhland,  Alte  hock-  und  nicderdevtsche  Volkslieder  (1844-45),  3rd  ed., 
4  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1893 ;  F.  M.  Bohme,  Altdeutsches  Liederbuch,  Leipzig, 
1877 ;  R.  von  Liliencron,  Die  historischcn  Volkslieder  der  Deutschen  vom  13. 
bis  mm  16.  Jahrh.,  4  vols.  and  supplement,  Leipzig,  1865-69;  also  the  same 
editor's  Deutsches  Leben  int  Volkslied  urn  1530  (D.IST.L.,  13  [1885]).  Cp.  the 
bibliography  of  the  Volkslied  by  J.  Meier  in  Paul is  Grundriss,  a,  i,  750  ff. 

L 


162     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  they  become  more  numerous. 
They  are  obviously  a  direct  development  of  the  Spriiche,  by 
means  of  which  the  Spielleute  provided  the  nation  with  news 
of  current  events  in  the  middle  ages.  A  spirited  lay  of  this' 
time  tells  of  the  famous  battle  of  Sempach  in  Switzerland  in 
1386  ;  another  relates  the  battle  of  Nafels,  where  the  Austrians 
were  defeated  by  the  Swiss  in  1388 ;  while  from  the  following 
century  we  possess  a  number  of  Swiss  ballads  celebrating  the 
national  struggle  with  Charles  the  Bold.  The  historical  Lied 
was  not,  however,  restricted  to  Switzerland  or  South  Germany. 
Two  notorious  pirates  of  the  North  Sea,  Godeke  Michael  and 
Stortebecker,  who,  about  1400,  harassed  the  commerce  of  the 
Hanse  towns,  until  Hamburg  ultimately  took  energetic  steps 
towards  their  repression,  were  the  subject  of  a  long  poem ; 
another  celebrated  the  achievements  of  Burggraf  Friedrich 
Hohenzollern  in  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century ;  while  the  Council  of  Constance,  held 
in  the  second  decade  of  that  same  century,  was  the  theme  of 
a  long,  almost  epic,  narrative  of  more  than  eighteen  hundred  ' 
lines.  From  the  most  trivial  adventure  of  merely  local  interest 
to  events  of  European  importance,  the  news  of  the  day  was 
thrown  into  easy,  pregnant  verses,  the  more  vivid  because 
expressed  in  the  terse  speech  of  the  people. 

Ballads  on  Nor  were  the  stories  of  the  heroic  age  forgotten :  they 
popular  now  reappear  in  ballad -form,  and  occasionally  represent  a 
more  primitive  stage  in  the  development  of  the  saga  than 
did  the  epics  of  the  Middle  High  German  period.  Koning 
Ermenrikes  Dod  is  the  theme  of  a  Low  German  Volkslied, 
and  the  lay  of  Hildebrant  reappears  in  a  version  which  avoids 
the  tragic  conclusion  of  the  original :  here,  after  a  fierce 
conflict,  father  and  son  are  reconciled.  New  sagas  gradu- 
ally formed  round  the  memory  of  the  poets  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  "Der  edele  Moringer"  and  Gottfried  von  Neifen 
are  the  chief  figures  in  a  romantic  ballad  of  this  period,  and 
the  poet  Danhuser  or  Tanhauser  becomes  the  hero  of  the 
Venusberg  saga.  In  the  Horselberg,  near  Eisenach,  Frau 
Venus  holds  her  court,  at  the  entrance  of  which  the  "getreue 
Eckart"  keeps  watch.  Ritter  Tanhauser  has  yielded  to  her 
allurements,  and,  now  seized  with  remorse,  makes  a  pilgrimage 
to  Rome  to  obtain  absolution  from  the  Pope.  "Ach  bapst,'1 
he  says — 


CH.  II.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      163 

"  '  Ach  bapst,  lieber  herre  mein  ! 
ich  klag  euch  hie  mein  sUnde 
die  ich  mein  tag  begangen  hab 
als  ich  euch  will  verkunden. 

Ich  bin  gewesen  auch  ain  jar 

bei  Venus  ainer  frawen, 

nun  wolt  ich  beicht  und  bliss  empfahn 

ob  ich  mocht  gott  anschawen.' 

Der  bapst  het  ain  steblin  in  seiner  hand 
und  das  was  also  durre  : 
'  als  wenig  das  steblin  gronen  mag 
kumstu  zu  gottes  hulde.' "  1 

The  miracle  happens,  the  staff  becomes  green,  but  too  late  to 
save  the  repentant  sinner :  he  has  returned  to  the  Venusberg. 

Love  poetry,  unhampered  by  rules  or  literary  traditions,   LOVC 
also    sprang   up    anew    in    this    period.      The    influence   of  songs- 
the  Minnesang  is,  it  is  true,  occasionally  noticeable  in  these 
love-songs  of  the  people,  but  the  artless,  natural  tone  of  the 
Volkslied  predominates.      There  is  nothing  of  the  artificial 
varnish  of  either  Court  poetry  or   Meistergesang  in  verses 
like— 

"  Ach  Elslein,  liebes  Elselein, 

wie  gern  war  ich  bei  dir  ! 

so  sein  zwei  tiefe  wasser 

wol  zwischen  dir  und  mir. 

Hoflf',  zeit  werd  es  wol  enden, 
hoff,  gliick  werd  kummen  drein, 
sich  in  als  guts  verwenden, 
herzliebstes  Elselein  ! " 
or  again — 

"  Dort  hoch  auf  jenem  berge 
da  get  ein  miilerad, 
das  malet  nichts  denn  liebe, 
die  nacht  biss  an  den  tag  ; 

die  mlile  ist  zerbrochen, 

die  liebe  hat  ein  end, 

so  gsegen  dich  got,  mein  feines  lieb  ! 

iez  far  ich  ins  ellend. "  2 

The  conflicts  of  storm  and  sunshine,  of  summer  and  winter,  also 
reappear  in  the  Volkslied ;  the  childlike  delight  in  the  coming 
of  spring  recalls  the  "  Minnesangs  Friihling  " ;  and  here,  too, 
as  in  the  Minnesang,  are  to  be  found  songs  of  longing,  of 

1  L.  Uhland,  I.e.,  2,  126  f.  (steblin,  "Stablein";  gronen,  "grilnen") 
a  L.  Uhland,  I.e.,  i,  73  and  63  (ins  ellend,  "  in  das  Fremde   ). 


164     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

parting,  "Tagelieder"  and  "  Tanzlieder."  Intimately  asso- 
Drinking  dated  with  the  songs  of  the  seasons  were  drinking  songs 
and  social  songs.  Hans  Rosenpliit,  the  Niirnberg  Schwank- 
dichter,  wrote  a  book  of  "  Weingriisse  "  and  "  Weinsegen." l 
A  song  like — 

"Den  liebsten  bulen,  den  ich  ban, 
der  ist  mit  reifen  bunden 
und  hat  ein  holzes  rocklein  an 
frischt  kranken  und  gesundcn  : 

Sein  nam  heisst  Wein,  schenk  dapfer  ein  ! 
so  wird  die  stimm  bass  klingen  ; 
ein  starken  trunk  in  einem  funk 
wil  ich  meim  brudern  bringen  "  2 

reappears  in  several  forms,  and  echoes  through  the  crude 
anacreontic  poetry  of  this  period.  "  Landsknechte  "  sing  of 
a  free,  careless  life,  and  students  glory  in  their  "  Burschen- 
leben":— 

' '  Du  freies  bursenleben  ! 

ich  lob  dich  fur  den  gral, 

got  hat  dir  macht  gegeben 

trauren  zu  widerstreben 

frisch  wesen  liberal."3 

The  The  religious  lyric  naturally  shared  in  the  revival  of  popular 

religious       song.      Oswald  von  Wolkenstein  and   Michael  Beheim   left 
Lied.  many  hymns  and  religious  poems,  and  biblical  themes  were 

favoured  by  the  Meistersingers.4  But  the  "geistliche  Lied" 
or  hymn  had,  from  the  earliest  times,  been  a  recognised 
form  of  the  German  Volkslied.  The  crusaders  had  their 
marching  songs  full  of  devout  trust  in  God;  sailors  as  well 
as  soldiers  had  always  expressed  their  faith  in  the  Higher 
Power  that  guarded  them,  in  terse  vernacular  verse  which 
borrowed  little  from  the  Church  hymn-book.  At  an  early 
date,  parts  of  the  liturgy  had  been  translated  into  the  ver- 
nacular, or  German  verses  had  been  substituted  for  the 
original  text :  from  such  versions  of  the  Kyrie  eleison  arose, 
for  instance,  the  so-called  "  Leisen."  In  the  fourteenth  cen- 

1  Ed.  M.  Haupt  in  Altdeutsche  Blatter,  i,  Leipzig,  1836,  401  ff. 

2  L.  Uhland,  I.e.,  a,  15  f.  (bass,  "besser";  funk,  "Schluck"). 

3  L.  Uhland,  I.e.,  a,  78  (gral,  "Gral,"  i.e.,  "der  Ehre  Hochstes"). 

4  P.  Wackernagel,  Das  deutscht  Kirchenlied  (5  vols.,  Leipzig,  1863-77),  a, 
478  ff.,  666  ff. 


CH.  II.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      165 

tury  a  monk,  Herman  or  Johannes  of  Salzburg,  had  by 
this  means  helped  to  popularise  the  old  Church  poetry;  and 
in  the  monasteries,  the  mystic  trend  in  theology  expressed 
itself  now,  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  Middle  High  German 
period,  in  a  revival  of  "  Marienlieder."  Another  favourite 
form  of  spiritual  song  consisted  of  religious  parodies  of 
familiar  Volkslieder.  "  Der  liebste  bule,  den  ich  han," 
became  a  devout  expression  of  the  soul's  love  for  Jesus; 
"Es  stet  ein  lind  in  jenem  Tal"  became  "Es  stet  ein  lind 
in  himelrich."  The  most  fertile  composer  of  such  hymns 
was  Heinrich  von  Laufenberg,  a  monk  of  Freiburg  in  the  Heinrich 
Breisgau,  who  died  in  1460:  besides  these  religious  Lieder  ™n 
he  has  also  left  two  long  allegorical  poems,  Der  Spiegel  des  berg. 
menschlichen  Heils  (1437)  and  Das  Buck  von  den  Figuren 
(1441),  in  which  the  mystic  tendencies  of  the  fifteenth 
century  find  characteristic  expression. 

The  majority  of  the  Volkslieder  in  the  centuries  preceding 
the  Reformation  were  handed  down  by  oral  tradition.  Only 
rarely — as  when  in  1471  Klara  Hatzlerin,1  a  nun  of  Augsburg, 
made  a  collection  of  them — were  they  committed  to  writing. 
The  Volkslied  of  these  centuries  was  thus  not  confined  to 
any  particular  class ;  all  classes  and  professions  had  a  share 
in  modelling  the  verses  or  the  melodies  of  the  songs :  they 
were,  as  Herder  first  set  forth  centuries  later  in  his  Von 
deutscher  Art  und  Kunst,  the  voice  of  the  whole  nation.  As 
one  generation  of  poets  after  another  has  felt,  the  Volkslied 
is  the  spring  to  which  the  German  lyric  must  turn,  to 
cleanse  itself  from  the  dust  of  a  purely  literary  or  bookish 
tradition. 

1  Ed.  C.  Haltaus,  Quedlinburg,  1840. 


166 


CHAPTER    III. 


MYSTICISM    AND    HUMANISM  ;     THE    REFORMATION. 

THE  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  present  certain  points 
of  resemblance  to  the  tenth  and  eleventh,  in  so  far  as  they 
were  both  periods  of  depression  and  of  unconscious  prepara- 
tion for  the  future.  The  wave  of  religious  fervour  which 
swept  across  Europe,  as  a  result  of  the  monastic  reforms  of 
the  tenth  century,  may  be  compared  with  the  deepening 
of  religious  life  due  to  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans  of 
the  pre-Reformation  centuries.  And  like  the  earlier  move- 
ment, this  later  religious  revival,  which  took  the  form  of 
mysticism,  spread  from  Western  Germany.  Traces  of  mysti- 
cism are  to  be  found,  as  we  have  already  seen,  in  the 
sermons  of  the  thirteenth  century,  in  those  of  David  of  Augs- 
burg and  Berthold  of  Regensburg,  but  the  line  of  German 
mystics  proper  commences  with  the  Dominican  Eckhart  (ca. 
1 2  60-13  2  y),1  who,  in  the  early  years  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  preached  in  Strassburg — where  he  was  probably  born 
— and  in  Cologne ;  in  Eckhart's  footsteps  followed  Heinrich 
Seuse  or  Suso  (1295-1366)  and  Johannes  Tauler  (ca.  1300- 
6i).2  Meister  Eckhart,  the  most  gifted  and  original  of  all 
the  German  mystics,  established  once  and  for  all  the  philo- 
sophical basis  for  mysticism :  in  his  writings  is  to  be 
found  that  anxious  searching  into  the  relations  of  the  soul 
with  God,  that  conception  of  God's  oneness  with  the  uni 
verse,  which  runs  through  the  whole  later  development  of  the 
Hemrich  movement  in  Germany.  Heinrich  Seuse,  who  was  a  Swiss, 
1295-1366.  represented  the  fervid  and  poetic  side  of  mysticism  :  he  ap- 

1  F.  Pfeiffer,  Deutsche  Mystiker  des  14.  Jahrhunderts,  2,  Leipzig,  1857.  Cp. 
F.  Preger,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Mystik  im  Mittelalter,  Leipzig,  1874-93, 
i,  309  ff. 

a  For  Seuse  and  Tauler,  cp.  F.  Preger,  I.e.,  a,  309  ff.  and  3,  3  fl 


Meister 
Eckhart, 
ca.  1260- 
1327. 


CH.  III.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      167 

pealed  to  the  imagination  rather  than  to  the  purely  religious 
sentiments  of  his  hearers.  The  Strassburg  preacher  Tauler, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  a  mystic  of  a  manlier  type.  He,  too,  Johannes 

preached  the  complete  union  of  the  soul  with  God,  but  he  TauleJ.  ca. 

. ,    ,  ,  r  .  130061. 

avoided  Eckhart  s  pantheism.  He  was  essentially  of  a  prac- 
tical nature  and  had  little  faith  in  outward  ceremonies ;  he 
believed  that  the  path  to  the  higher  religious  life  led  only 
through  personal  conversion  and  the  communion  of  the  soul 
with  God.  For  centuries,  Tauler's  sermons  were  favourite 
religious  books  with  the  German  people. 

Mysticism,  in  so  far  as  it  was  a  revival  of  religious  indi- 
vidualism, was  thus  a  forerunner  of  the  Reformation.     The 
history  of  literature  is,  however,  more  intimately  concerned 
with  another  aspect  of  the  movement,  an  aspect  in  which 
the  aims  of  Protestantism  were  no  less  distinctly  foreshadowed. 
To  the  mystics  we  owe  the  first  complete  German  Bible,  a  The  first 
translation  of  the  Vulgate,  which  was  printed  at  Strassburg  S^jman 
in  1466.     Until  this  translation  was  superseded,  a  generation   1466. 
later,  by  Luther's  work,  it  was  reprinted  no  less  than  thirteen 
times.     And,  in  addition  to  the  printed  version,  there  existed 
several  manuscript  translations  of  the  whole  Bible,  or  part 
of  it,  the  majority  of  which  are  also  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
influence  of  this  religious  movement. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  mysticism  had  lost  something  of 
its  unworldly  enthusiasm,  and  in  its  place   had  appeared  a 
practical   religious    spirit,    but   a   spirit    that   was   even   less 
tolerant  of  abuses  and  superficial  thinking.     The  representative 
preacher  of  this  century — as  Tauler  had  been   of  the  pre- 
ceding one — was  Johann  Geiler  of  Kaisersberg  (I445-I5IO).1  j0hann 
The  scene  of  Geiler's  activity  was  again  Strassburg.     Like  his  Geiler  of 
contemporary   and    friend,   Sebastian    Brant,   Geiler   had  re-  berg^i^s- 
ceived  the  best  part  of  his  education  from  the  humanists,   1510. 
and    this    to    some   extent   explains    the   difference  between 
him  and  his  predecessors.      Geiler  was  more  of  a  satirist ; 
there  is  less   mysticism  in   his  sermons  and  more  practical 
common-sense.     He,  too,  like  Tauler,  preached  the  necessity 
of  an  essentially  personal  relationship  between  the  soul  and 
God,  but  his  eyes  were  more  open  to  ecclesiastical  abuses. 

1  L.  Dacheux,  Jean  Geiler  de  Kaisersberg,  un  reformateur  catholique  d  la  fin 
du  XVe  siecle,  Paris,  1876.  Selections  from  his  writings,  ed.  by  P.  de  Lorenzi, 
4  vols.,  Treves,  1881-83. 


168      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Human- 
ism. 


Transla- 
tions from 
Latin  and 
Italian. 


The  litera- 
ture of 
humanism. 


The  most  famous  collection  of  his  sermons,  Das  Narren- 
schiff(\$\\>  in  Latin;  translated  nine  years  later  by  J.  Pauli), 
takes  the  form  of  a  spiritual  exegesis  of  Brant's  poem. 
On  the  religious  life  of  his  time  Geiler's  influence  was  hardly 
less  widespread  than  that  of  Tauler. 

But  mysticism  was  not  the  only  sign  of  the  times.  Another 
factor  in  the  life  of  these  centuries  had  an  equally  important 
share  in  preparing  the  ground  for  the  Reformation — namely, 
humanism,  which  began,  as  far  as  Germany  was  concerned,  with 
the  foundation  of  the  University  of  Prague  in  1 347.  The  chief 
importance  of  humanism  for  Germany  lay  in  the  fact  that  it 
gave  the  national  life  a  cosmopolitan  character.  The  use  of 
the  Latin  tongue,  the  intercourse  between  German  scholars  and 
the  leading  Italian  humanists,  rapidly  widened  the  intellec- 
tual horizon  of  Northern  Europe.  The  translation  of  Latin 
and  Italian  literature  received  a  fresh  impetus.  Between 
1461  and  1478  Niklas  von  Wyl,  Chancellor  of  Wiirtemberg, 
produced  Translationen  of  Enea  Silvio,  Poggio,  Petrarch,  and 
other  humanists  ; :  and  shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  century 
a  certain  Arigo,  who,  with  considerable  probability,  has  been 
identified  as  Heinrich  Leubing  of  Niirnberg  (ca.  1 400-7 2),2 
translated  Boccaccio's  Decamerone  and  another  Italian  book, 
Fiore  di  Virtfi  {B lumen  der  Tugend).  Albrecht  von  Eyb 
(1420-75),  a  native  of  Franconia,  who  had  studied  in  Italy, 
wrote  in  good  popular  German  a  still  readable  Ehestandsbuch 
(i472)3  on  the  theme,  "ob  eim  manne  sei  zu  nemen  ein 
elich  weibe  oder  nit,"  and  a  Spiegel  der  Sitten  (1474  ;  printed 
1511),  which  is  inspired  by  the  liberal  ideas  of  the  Italian 
Renaissance.  The  same  writer  also  translated  the  Menaechmi 
and  Bacchides  of  Plautus,  which  he  appended  to  the  Sitten- 
spiegel.  But,  with  the  humanists  as  with  the  monks  of  earlier 
centuries,  Terence  was  the  more  popular  of  the  Roman  drama- 
tists; the  first  complete  German  Terence  appeared  in  1499, 
and  translations  of  other  Latin  and  Greek  classics  were  not 
long  in  following. 

The  original  humanistic  literature  of  the  fourteenth  and 

1  Ed.  A.  von  Keller  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  57),  1861. 

2  Cp.  K.  Drescher,  Arigo,  eine  Untersuchung  (Quellen  und  Forschungen,  86), 
Strassburg,  1900.     The  Decameron ,  ed.  A.  von  Keller  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  51), 
1860. 

8  Ed.  M.  Herrmann,  Berlin,  1890.     Cp.  M.  Herrmann,  A.  von  F.yb  and  die 
Fruhzeit  des  deutschen  Humanismus,  Berlin,  1893. 


CH.  III.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      169 


fifteenth  centuries,  however,  was  and  remained  Latin  —  Latin 
not  only  in  language  but  in  spirit.  This  makes  it  even  less 
appropriate,  in  a  history  of  German  literature,  to  discuss  the 
humanists  than  it  was  to  take  account  of  the  Latin  poets  of 
the  Ottonian  Renaissance,  where  often  only  the  language  was 
foreign.  The  humanists,  from  their  earliest  representatives, 
Peter  Luder,  who  died  about  1474,  and  Konrad  Celtes 
(1459-1508)  onwards,  took  a  pride  in  holding  aloof  from  the 
vernacular  literature.  Thus  as  a  literary  influence,  humanism 
had  its  dark  side  ;  it  saddled  the  German  tongue  with  a  pre- 
judice which  did  not  disappear  until  late  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  On  the  other  hand,  German  scholarship  and  Ger- 
man universities  rose  upon  the  tide  of  humanistic  cosmo- 
politism, and  were  soon  in  a  position  to  rival  successfully 
those  of  Italy  and  France.  And  although  the  spirit  of  the 
humanistic  literature  was  Latin,  the  humanists  themselves 
were  by  no  means  devoid  of  patriotism  ;  the  Alsatian,  Jakob 
Wimpfeling  (1450-1528),  wrote  an  Epitoma  rerum  Germanic- 
arum  usque  ad  nostra  tempora  (1505),  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  first  historical  work  produced  in  Germany,  and  Konrad 
Celtes,  Wilibald  Pirckheimer,  Franciscus  Irenicus,  and  Konrad 
Peutinger,  all  occupied  themselves  at  •  one  time  or  another 
with  the  past  history  of  their  country. 

In  northern  Europe,  the  humanistic  movement  reached  its 
culmination  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in 
Desiderius  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam  (1466-1536)  and  his  hardly 

less  famous  contemporary,   Johannes  Reuchlin  of  Pforzheim 

/  \  i     T>  I.L  •  c  r  4.u 

(1455-1  522).  x    Both  men  were  in  a  measure  forerunners  01  the 

Reformation,  but  they  were  essentially  scholars,  not  reformers. 
They  fought  against  the  abuses  of  Catholicism,  but  with  the 
weapons  of  philosophy  and  learning;  their  satire  was  purely 
intellectual.  The  Enchiridion  militis  christiani  ("Manual  of 
the  Christian  Soldier,"  1509)  and  Morice  Encomium  ("Praise 
of  Folly,"  1509)  of  Erasmus  were  world-famous  books,  but 
they  are  written  from  the  superior  standpoint  of  the  scholar  : 
they  did  not  come,  as  it  were,  from  the  heart  of  the  nation 
like  the  writings  of  Luther  a  few  years  later.  The  foundation 

1  Cp.  E.  Emerton,  Desiderius  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam,  New  York,  1899;  L. 
Geiger,  Johann  Reuchlin,  Leipzig,  1871.  The  Epistolce  obscurorum  virorum 
are  edited  by  E.  Bucking  in  the  supplement  to  his  edition  of  Hutten,  2  vols., 
Leipzig,  1864-70. 


j.  Wim- 
Pfelin£> 


D.  Eras- 
mus>  I466- 
J536»  and 
j.  Reuch- 

lin>  MSS- 


I7O     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 


The 

Epistolte 
obscurorum 
virorum, 


Martin 
Luther, 
1483-1546. 


of  a  direct,  face-to-face  knowledge  of  the  Bible  was  first  laid 
by  Erasmus  in  his  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament,  to  which 
he  appended  a  Latin  translation  (1516),  and  by  Reuchlin 
who,  in  1506  and  1518,  published  handbooks  for  the  study 
of  Hebrew.  Reuchlin's  Hebrew  grammar  was  the  occasion  of 
one  of  the  bitterest  theological  conflicts  of  pre-Reformation 
times.  He  was  accused  of  undue  sympathy  for  the  Jews,  and 
the  theological  world  rose  in  arms  against  him.  The  humanists, 
however,  took  his  part,  and  it  was  soon  evident  that  they 
possessed  the  more  effective  weapons.  In  1514  Reuchlin  was 
able  to  publish  the  Epistolce  clarorum  virorum^  in  which  the 
greatest  men  of  his  time  expressed  their  sympathy  with  his 
cause;  and  in  the  following  year  appeared,  as  an  ostensible 
reply,  the  first  series  of  the  anonymous  Epistolce  obscurorum 
virorum  (1515-17).  The  clerical  party  was  at  first  baffled 
by  this  remarkable  collection  of  letters  from  all  manner  of 
fantastically  named  Churchmen ;  in  appearance  it  was  an 
attack  upon  their  opponents.  But  soon  it  became  evident 
to  every  one  that  the  letters  were  in  reality  a  humanistic  satire 
upon  the  Church  party.  The  Epistola  obscurorum  virorum 
are,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  bitter  and  powerful  satires  in  the 
literature  of  these  centuries,  and  they  won  the  first  battle  in  the 
cause  of  the  Reformation.  The  authorship  is  still  a  matter 
of  uncertainty,  but  a  certain  Johann  Jager  (Crotus  Rubianus ; 
ca.  1480-1540)  of  Dornheim  seems  to  have  had  the  chief 
share  in  the  book,  and  a  considerable  number  of  letters  were 
contributed  by  Ulrich  von  Hutten. 

On  the  3ist  of  October  1517  a  monk  of  Wittenberg 
nailed  upon  the  door  of  the  Schlosskirche  in  that  town  ninety- 
five  Thesen  wider  den  Ablass.  The  hour  had  come  at  last — 
and  the  man.  What  mysticism  and  humanism  had  failed  to 
achieve,  was  conceived  and  carried  out  by  Martin  Luther.1 
Born  of  poor  parents  in  the  little  Thuringian  town  of  Eisleben, 
on  the  loth  of  November  1483,  Luther  had  been  educated 
in  the  school  of  the  humanists,  and  from  mysticism  he  had 
learned  that  the  soul  may  hold  direct  intercourse  with  God. 

1  A  standard  edition  of  Luther's  works,  of  which  18  vols.  have  appeared,  is 
being  published  at  Weimar,  1883  ff. ;  selections  of  literary  interest  edited  by 
K.  Goedeke  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  16.  Jahrh.,  18),  Leipzig,  1883,  and  E.  Wolff 
(D.N.L.,  15  [1892]).  Cp.  J.  Kostlin,  Martin  Luther,  sein  Leben  -und  seine 
Schriften,  4th  ed.,  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1889 ;  T.  Kolde,  Martin  Luther,  2  vols., 
Gotha,  1884-93. 


CH.  III.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      171 

But  his  broad  virile  humanity  shrank  from  learned  subtleties 
and  scholastic  exclusiveness,  and,  unlike  the  mystics,  he  was 
not  dreamer  enough  to  be  satisfied  with  a  spiritual  kingdom 
within  while  abuses  raged  without. 

In  1512,  after  a  journey  to  Rome,  Luther  was  made  Doctor  Luther  in 
of  Theology  in  the  University  of  Wittenberg,  and  in  1517,  as 
we  have  seen,  commenced  his  attack  on  the  abuse  of  in- 
dulgences. Repentance,  he  proclaimed,  was  an  inward  pro- 
cess of  the  soul,  and  could  not  be  sold  by  the  Church.  Three 
years  later  followed  his  flaming  appeal  An  den  Christlichen 
Adel  deutscher  Nation  :  von  des  Christlichen  standes  besserung, 
the  Latin  tract  De  captivitate  Babylonica  ecclesia  ("  The 
Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church"),  and  finally — as  a 
reply  to  the  excommunication  of  the  Pope —  Von  der  Freyheyt 
eyniss  Christen  menschen)-  These  are  the  three  great  docu- 
ments of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  Firmly  established  on 
the  rock  of  the  Bible,  Luther  thunders  forth  his  attack  upon 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Papacy,  his  insistence  on  the  supremacy 
of  the  German  Kaiser,  his  triumphant  demand  that  the  Bible, 
and  the  Bible  alone,  shall  be  law  to  every  Christian.  He 
calls  for  a  new  Council  to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  Church,  to 
sweep  from  German  soil  the  network  of  hypocrisy  and  vice 
in  which  foreigners  had  entangled  the  nation's  spiritual  life. 
He  will  have  no  more  vows  and  no  monastic  prisons ;  no 
more  festivals  for  saints,  no  pious  pilgrimages;  no  further 
inquisitional  measures  against  heretics.  Education,  above  all 
things,  is  to  be  reformed;  in  place  of  religious  orders,  free 
Christian  schools  are  to  be  founded,  and  the  scholastic 
methods  swept  away  with  the  cobwebs  of  the  old  theology. 
There  have  perhaps  been  loftier  and  grander  schemes  of 
human  reform  both  before  and  after  Luther,  but  never  did 
a  scheme  so  magnificently  practical,  a  scheme  that  was 
realisable  to  the  last  letter,  spring  from  the  brain  of  a  single 
man.  Luther  was,  above  all  things,  a  man  of  supreme 
common-sense ;  he  looked  the  world  straight  in  the  face,  saw 
life  in  all  its  littleness  as  well  as  greatness,  but  never  lost 
faith  in  its  possibilities.  His  sincerity,  too,  was  unimpeach- 
able; in  his  nature,  as  in  that  of  the  ideal  knights  of  the 
middle  ages,  there  was  no  room  for  valsch. 

1  Reprints  of  An  den  Christlichen  Adel  and  Von  der  Freyheyt  eyniss  Christen 
menschen  in  the  Halle  Neudrucke,  4  (2nd  ed.,  1897)  and  18  (1879). 


172      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

The  time  was,  indeed,  ripe,  but  the  greatness  of  Luther's 
work  must  not  on  that  account  be  underestimated.  It  is  not 
to  be  forgotten  that  in  these,  the  first  battles  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, Luther  fought  single-handed ;  his  scheme  of  reform  was 
conceived  and  carried  out  by  himself  alone.  On  the  heels 
of  his  first  appeal  followed  tract  upon  tract,  in  which  he  laid 
down,  with  the  unbending  conviction  of  a  dictator,  the  tenets 
of  the  new  faith.  He  stood  amidst  the  storms  that  raged 
round  his  head,  like  the  hero  of  an  old  Germanic  epic,  until 
the  culminating-point  was  reached  in  the  supreme  moment  at 
the  Council  of  Worms,  when  he  refused  before  Emperor  and 
Empire  to  recant  his  faith  :  "  Hier  stehe  ich,  ich  kann  nicht 
anders.  Gott  helfe  mir  !  Amen."  This  was  on  the  1 8th  of 
April  1521.  Then  followed  some  months  of  concealment 
in  the  Wartburg  as  "Junker  Georg,"  a  willing  prisoner  of 
the  Saxon  Elector.  In  these  months  Luther  began  his 
Luther's  greatest  literary  work,  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
Bible,  1522-  German.  The  New  Testament  appeared  in  1522,  the  whole 
Bible  in  1534.  In  1522  he  was  able  to  return  to  Witten- 
berg, where,  with  increased  zeal,  he  continued  the  work  of 
the  Reformation.  In  1525  he  married  a  former  nun, 
Katharina  von  Bora,  and  for  the  next  twenty  years  lived 
mainly  in  Wittenberg,  engaged  with  restless,  unwearied 
activity  in  the  organisation  of  the  new  faith  and  the  new 
Church.  His  death  took  place  during  a  visit  to  his  native 
town,  in  1546. 

The  importance  of  Luther's  Bible  cannot  be  too  highly 
estimated,  either  as  the  text-book  of  Reformed  Christianity 
or  as  a  literary  monument.  His  original  works  hardly  bear, 
one  might  say,  so  strong  an  impress  of  his  magnificent 
personality  as  this  German  Bible.  For  it  was,  above  all 
things,  a  German  Bible.  Although  he  went  back  to  the 
original  Hebrew  and  Greek  texts,  Luther  made  no  slavish 
translation  ;  he  gave  the  German  people  a  truer  "  Volksbuch  " 
than  did  his  scholarly  predecessors,  who,  in  their  transla- 
tions of  the  Vulgate,  aimed  at  closer  accuracy.  The  language 
of  Luther's  Bible  is  German — living,  whole-hearted,  humorous, 
German ;  it  is  written  as  few  books  have  been  written,  in 
the  unadulterated  language  of  the  people.  Just  as  the  Old 
Saxon  singer  of  the  Heliand  adapted  the  story  of  Christ  to 
the  life  and  ideas  of  the  ninth  century,  so,  no  less,  has 


CH.  in.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      173 

Luther  Germanised  his  translation.  He  has  rendered  the 
concrete  Hebrew  poetry  and  lucid  Greek  narrative  by  the 
pithy  language  and  the  proverbial  phrases  of  the  peasant's 
home. 

"  Ich  weis  wol,"  writes  Luther  in  his  Letter  Vom  Dolmetschen 
(1530),  "was  fur  kunst,  vleis,  vernunfft,  verstand  zum  guten  Dol- 
metscher  gehoret.  .  .  .  Man  mus  nicht  die  buchstaben  in  der 
Lateinischen  sprachen  fragen,  wie  man  sol  Deudsch  reden,  Sondern 
man  mus  die  Mutter  im  hause,  die  Kinder  auff  der  gassen,  den  ge- 
meinen  Man  auffdem  marckt  drumb  fragen, vnd  denselbigen  auff  das 
Maul  sehen,  wie  sie  reden,  vnd  darnach  dolmetschen,  So  verstehen 
sie  es  denn  vnd  mercken,  das  man  Deudsch  mit  jnen  redet.  .  .  . 
So  wil  ich  auch  sagen,  Du  holdselige  Maria,  du  liebe  Maria,  Vnd 
lasse  sie  [i.e.,  die  Papisten]  sagen,  Du  vol  gnaclen  Maria.  Wer 
Deudsch  kan,  der  weis  wol,  welch  ein  hertzlich  fein  wort  das  ist, 
Die  liebe  Maria,  der  liebe  Gott,  der  liebe  Keiser,  der  liebe  Fiirst, 
der  liebe  Man,  das  liebe  Kind.  Vnd  ich  weis  nicht,  ob  man  das 
wort  liebe,  auch  so  hertzlich  vnd  gnugsam  in  Lateinischer  oder 
andern  sprachen  reden  miige,  das  also  dringe  vnd  klinge  ins  hertz, 
durch  alle  sinne,  wie  es  thut  in  vnser  Sprache." * 

He  was  able,  however,  to  cope  with  his  original  in  more 
than  language;  he  himself  had  felt  the  wrath  of  Jehovah, 
and  the  holy  faith  in  Christ's  mission  glowed  in  his  heart 
no  less  fiercely  than  in  the  hearts  of  the  first  disciples. 
The  Bible  was  thus  for  him  not  merely  a  historical  record 
of  his  faith ;  it  was,  from  first  word  to  last,  the  living 
Word  of  God.  In  interpreting  it,  he  did  not  feel  the 
necessity  of  putting  himself  in  the  position  of  a  Jew  or 
an  early  Christian ;  he  regarded  it  as  a  book  appealing 
directly  and  immediately  to  the  German  burgher  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  is  here  that  the  secret  of  Luther's 
genius  as  a  translator  lies.  One  might  say,  indeed,  that 
his  Bible  is  the  final  triumph  of  the  modern  middle-class 
spirit  over  the  aristocratic  spirit  of  medieval  literature. 

Thus,  in  the  best  sense,  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible  is  a  The  Ian- 
work  of  creative  genius,  the  greatest  German  book  produced  f^er's 
within  a  period  extending  over  at  least  three  centuries.     No  Bible, 
other  work  has  played  so  important  a  role  in  the  history  of 
the  language  as  this  Bible,  for  it  gave  the  nation  a  normal 
language  in   place  of  the  many  dialects   that  had  been  in 
use    for    literary    purposes    during    the    preceding    centuries. 

1  Jena  edition  of  Luther's  Bticher  vnd  Schti/ten,  5  (1557),  162  ff. 


174     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  ill. 

"  Ich  hab,"  said  Luther  in  one  of  his  Tischreden^  "  keine 
gewisse,  sonderliche,  eigene  Sprach  im  Teutschen,  sondern 
brauche  der  gemeinen  Teutschen  Sprach,  dass  mich  beyde, 
Ober  und  Niderlander  verstehen  mogen." l  Luther's  German 
was  virtually  the  language  of  the  Saxon  "  Kanzlei "  or 
Chancery.  Even  before  his  translation,  the  various  German 
States  in  their  communications  with  one  another  had  felt 
the  need  of  a  uniform  dialect,  and  the  Chancery  of  Vienna 
had  attempted  a  linguistic  compromise  with  the  Chanceries 
of  North  Germany.  But,  as  a  consequence  of  Luther's 
favouring  the  official  language  of  the  Electorate  of  Saxony, 
that  dialect  soon  gained  the  upper  hand  and  became  the 
literary  language  of  the  German-speaking  world. 

Luther  caught  the  popular  tone  as  perfectly  in  his  verse 

as  in  his  prose;  he  not  only  gave  Protestant  Germany  its 

Geistiiche     Bible,   but  also  its  evangelical  hymn-book.     His   Geistliche 

fc2^r'         Lieder,  of  which  the  first  collection  appeared  in  1524,  are  in 

the  best  sense  popular ;  their  straightforward,  simple  language, 

their   intense   earnestness   and    heart-felt   piety,    make   them 

masterpieces  of  hymnal  poetry.     Hymns  such  as — 

"  Vom  himel  hoch  da  kom  ich  her, 
ich  bring  euch  gute  newe  mehr, 
Der  guten  mehr  bring  ich  so  viel, 
davon  ich  singen  vnd  sagen  wil. 

Euch  ist  ein  kindlein  heut  geborn, 
von  einer  jungfraw  auserkorn, 
Ein  kindelein  so  zart  vnd  fein  : 
Das  sol  ewr  freud  vnd  wonne  sein," 

or  the  magnificent  paean  of  Reformation — 

"  Ein  feste  burg  ist  vnser  Gott, 
ein  gute  wehr  vnd  waffen, 
Er  hilfft  vnns  frey  aus  aller  not, 
die  vns  ytzt  hat  betroffen. 

Der  alt  bose  feind 
mit  ernst  ers  ytzt  meint, 
gros  macht  vnd  viel  list 
sein  grausam  riistung  ist, 
auff  erd  ist  nicht  seins  gleichen."  2 

are  the  inspired  utterances  of  a  true  poet,  but  they  are,  at  the 
same  time,  the  spiritual  Volkslieder  of  the  nation.  Although 

1   Tischreden,  Kap.  69. 

a  P.  Wackernagel,  Das  deutsche  Kirchenlied,  3,  20  and  23. 


CH.  Hi.]     EARLY  .NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      175 

between  the  appearance  of  the  Geistlichen  Lieder  in  1524  and 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  vast  literature  of  Church 
song  sprang  up  under  Luther's  inspiration,  the  peculiar  excel- 
lence of  his  hymns  was  never  surpassed.  Other  hymn-writers 
caught  the  tone  of  the  Volkslied  as  he  had  done,  many  of 
them  wrote  more  musical  verses,  but  the  general  tendency  of 
the  later  Protestant  hymn  was  towards  a  less  simple  expres- 
sion of  faith,  towards  a  glorification  of  dogmatic  principles. 

The  great  Reformer  is  seen  from  another  and  more  per- 
sonal  side  in  the  intimacy  of  his  letters,  and  especially  in 
his  Tischreden  (collected  1566).  Again,  it  is  Luther's  magni- 
ficent personality  that  here  confronts  us.  Straightforward, 
honest  simplicity,  that  combination  of  naivete"  of  mind  with 
strength  of  will  and  indomitable  conviction,  which  is  to  be 
observed  in  so  many  of  the  leading  geniuses  of  the  Germanic 
races — these  are  the  characteristics  that  speak  out  of  every 
page  of  the  Tischreden.  There  are  times,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, when  Luther's  bluntness  offends,  when  we  have  more 
sympathy  for  the  calm,  philosophic  ideals  of  the  humanists 
than  for  the  doctrines  of  this  iconoclast  who  broke  down 
the  old  faith  with  barbaric  ruthlessness.  Even  Luther's 
theological  principles  and  dogmas  smack  sometimes  more  of 
medieval  thraldom  and  intolerance  than  of  the  freedom  we 
now  associate  with  Protestantism.  But,  when  we  consider  the 
issues  at  stake  and  the  conditions  of  the  age,  it  is  clear  that 
the  only  possible  champion  was  a  man  like  Luther :  without 
his  strong,  brutal  doggedness,  the  Reformation  would  have 
been  no  more  lasting  in  its  effects  than  had  been  the  many 
would-be  Reformations  before  it. 

Of  his  fellow  -  fighters  only  one  has  a  place  in  the  Ulrich  von 
history  of  literature,  the  Franconian  knight  Ulrich  von  Hutten 
(I488-I523).1  In  some  respects  Hutten  may  be  said  to  have 
supplemented  Luther's  work.  A  popular  reformer  he  was 
not  ;  he  is  rather  to  be  described  as  a  combination  of 
humanist  and  Protestant.  But  what  he  lacked  as  a  religious 
fighter  he  made  up  for  as  a  patriot :  while  Luther  fought  for 
religious  reform,  Hutten  dreamed  of  intellectual  and  political 
freedom.  Moreover,  it  was  not  until  Luther  questioned 

1  Cp.  D.  Strauss,  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  2  vols.  4th  ed. ,  Bonn,  1878 ;  Hutten's 
works  are  edited  by  E.  Booking,  7  vols.,  Leipzig,  1859-70.  Selections  from  his 
Deutsche  Schriften,  ed.  G.  Balke  (D.N.L.,  17,  a  [1891]),  201  ff. 


EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

the  supremacy  of  Rome  that  Hutten  realised  they  had 
anything  in  common,  that  the  causes  for  which  they  were 
fighting  were  but  two  sides  of  the  same  thing.  Hutten's 
literary  work — his  best  writings  are  in  Latin — is  of  a  less 
simple  and  popular  kind  than  Luther's ;  it  has  the  polish  of 
the  scholarly  humanist  and  betrays  the  writer  who  had 
been  exclusively  schooled  in  Latin  culture.  When,  however, 
His  he  writes  verse,  he  forgets  that  he  is  a  humanist ;  his  German 

writings.  poems,  such  as  the  Clag  vnd  vormanung  gegen  dem  ilbermiissigen 
vnchrist lichen  gewalt  des  Bapsts  zu  Rom,  vnd  der  vngeistlichen 
geistlichen  (1521),  the  well-known  Lied(\$2\) — 

"  Ich  habs  gewagt  mit  sinnen 
vnd  trag  des  noch  kain  rew, 
mag  ich  nit  dran  gewinnen, 
noch  muss  man  spiiren  trew  "  1 — 

and  the  verses  scattered  through  his  German  prose  works,  are 
written  in  a  thoroughly  popular  style  and  in  a  rhythm  that  sug- 
gests the  Volkslied.  Of  Hutten's  various  theological  writings, 
which  were  either  originally  written  in  German  or  translated  by 
himself  from  his  own  Latin  originals,  the  most  important  are 
the  four  dialogues  entitled  Feber  das  Erst,  Feber  das  Ander, 
Wadiscus  oder  die  Romische  Dreyfaltigkeyt,  and  Die  An- 
schawenden,  which  together  form  the  Gesprdch  biichlin  pub- 
lished at  Strassburg  in  1521. 

While  Luther  saw  his  dreams  realised,  Ulrich  von  Hutten 
was  a  disappointed  man.  He  had  set  his  heart  upon  a 
national  uprising  against  the  Pope,  headed  by  a  free  knight 
like  Franz  von  Sickingen ;  but  it  soon  became  clear  that  little 
was  to  be  hoped  for  in  this  direction.  Broken  in  health, 
Hutten  was  forced  to  flee  before  his  enemies ;  Zwingli  offered 
him  a  refuge  on  the  island  of  Ufnau  in  the  Lake  of  Zurich, 
and  here  he  died  in  1523.  If  we  except  Hutten  and  perhaps 
P.  Melan-  Melanchthon  (Philipp  Schwarzerd,  1497-1560) — also,  like 
ihth°"'6o  Hutten,  a  link  between  humanism  and  Protestantism  — 
the  German  humanists  held  aloof  from  the  Reforma- 
tion. To  assume  a  conservative  attitude  in  questions  of 
reform  lay  in  the  nature  of  humanism ;  and  it  shrank 
from  the  coarseness  inevitable  in  a  movement  which  affected 
not  merely  the  educated  and  cultured  classes,  but  all  ranks 

1  P.  Wackernagel,  I.e.,  3,  386  (sinnen,  "Absicht  und  Uberlegung  "). 


CH.  ill.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      177 

of  the  nation.  The  scholars  and  poets  of  the  time — not- 
withstanding the  liberal  nature  of  their  personal  views — were 
indeed  often  more  inclined  to  side  with  Luther's  enemies, 
and  it  is  significant  that  one  of  the  most  gifted  of  these, 
the  Catholic  monk  Thomas  Murner,  had  been  educated  by 
the  humanists. 

Murner  was  probably  born  at  Oberehnheim  in  Alsace,  in  Thomas 
1475;  h's  youth  was  spent  in  Strassburg,  where  in  1491  Murner» 
he  became  a  Franciscan  monk.  Unsettled  years  followed, 
when  we  find  him  either  as  student  or  as  teacher  in 
several  of  the  chief  European  universities.  He  died  in  his 
native  village  in  1537.  Attention  was  first  drawn  to  Murner 
by  his  attack  on  Wimpfeling's  Germania  (1501),  to  which 
he  opposed  a  Germania  nova  (I502),1  claiming  Alsace  for 
France,  instead  of,  as  Wimpfeling  had  done,  for  Germany. 
But  neither  this  book  nor  his  translation  of  Vergilij  dryzehen 
Aeneadischen  Biicher  (1515)  gave  Murner  an  opportunity  to 
be  satirical,  and  it  was  in  satire  that  his  genius  first  revealed 
itself.  As  a  preacher,  he  had  early  gained  a  reputation 
for  that  ironical,  witty  style  of  pulpit-oratory  which  Geiler 
cultivated,  but  his  more  immediate  model  was  Sebastian 
Brant.  The  influence  of  both  Geiler  and  Brant  may  be 
traced  in  the  two  satires  Die  Narren  beschweerung  and  Die 
Schelmen  zunfft  (1512),  and  in  the  allegory  Ein  andechtig 
geistliche  Badenfart  (i5i4),2  the  works  with  which  Murner 
began  his  career.  The  similarity  of  these  poems  to  Brant's 
Narrenschiff  is  not  to  be  overlooked ;  and  Murner's  method 
is,  in  its  general  lines,  identical  with  Brant's.  But  while  the 
latter  never  forgot  that  he  was  a  scholar,  Murner  struck  the 
coarsest  popular  note;  Brant  had  some  sense  of  literary 
dignity ;  Murner  had  none.  On  the  other  hand,  Murner's 
verses  came  more  spontaneously ;  his  thrusts  never  missed 
their  mark,  and  left  wounds  behind  them  that  rankled. 

In  his  next  writings,  Die  Millie  von  Schwyndelssheym  vnd 
Gredt  Miillerin  Jarzeit  (1515)  and  Die  Geuchmat  (isig),3  ml*tt    ™~ 

1  Both  works  edited  together  by  K.  Schmidt,  Geneva,  1875.  Cp.  E.  Martin's 
translation  of  Wimpfeling's  Germania,  Strassburg,  1885. 

3  The  Badenfart  ed.  E.  Martin,  Strassburg,  1887 ;  the  other  two  satires  in 
the  Neudrucke,  85  and  119-124,  Halle,  1890-94;  Die  Narrenbeschworung,  also 
edited  by  K.  Goedeke  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  16.  Jahrh.,  u),  Leipzig,  1879. 
Cp.  G.  Balke,  I.e.,  17,  i  ff.  and  59  ff. 

3  Edited  respectively  by  P.  Albrecht  (Strassburger  Studien,  2,  i),  1883,  and 
W.  Uhl,  Leipzig,  1896. 

M 


178      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

Murner  goes  further  in  unscrupulousness,  in  coarseness,  and 
vulgarity.  Here,  again,  his  theme  is  the  favourite  butt  of 
satire  in  the  age  of  the  Reformation,  the  "Narr,"  and  in 
the  Geuchmat — the  "fools'  meadow" — he  expends  all  his 
bitterness  upon  the  "  fool  of  love."  These  poems  are 
hardly  readable  to-day,  but,  in  judging  them,  allowance 
must  be  made  for  the  virile  age  in  which  they  were  written. 
There  is  never  a  smile  behind  the  mask  of  this  misogynous 
monk ;  no  class  of  society,  not  even  his  own  order,  escapes 
the  bitterness  of  his  gall.  In  fact,  as  a  satirist  of  monkish 
corruption,  Murner  was  of  more  assistance  to  the  cause 
of  the  Reformation  than  even  Brant  had  been.  But  he  was 
of  too  negative  a  nature  to  see  good  in  anything  that 
savoured  of  reform ;  he  wholly  mistrusted  any  change  that 
went  beyond  the  removal  of  abuses  within  the  Church,  and 
his  own  sympathies  were  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  old  regime 
for  him  to  look  with  favour  on  the  new.  Above  all,  he 
resented  interference  on  the  part  of  the  laity.  In  the 
earliest  stages  of  the  Reformation  he  was  at  one  with  the 
Reformers,  but  they  soon  seemed  to  him  to  out-step  reason- 
able limits ;  he  made  almost  pathetic  appeals  to  them  to 
leave,  if  not  the  saints,  at  least  the  Virgin,  untouched  ;  he 
championed  the  Catholic  hierarchy  as  one  might  imagine  a 
knight  of  the  fifteenth  century  championing  the  sinking 
world  of  chivalry.  But  before  long  he  saw  that  such  appeals 
were  of  little  avail,  and  he  took  up  his  old  weapon  again.  In 
1522  he  produced  the  wittiest  and  bitterest  of  all  his  satires, 
Vondem  Von  dem  grossen  Lutherischen  Narren  wie  in  doctor  Murner 
^°"/n.  beschworen  hat.1  Although  gross  as  only  Murner  could  be, 
schen  and  unscrupulous  in  his  personalities  against  Luther  and  his 

Narren,  fellow-fighters,  Murner  is  here  once  more  master  of  his  art. 
The  "grosse  Narr"  whom  he  conjures  up  is  the  Refor- 
mation, and  the  Narr  contains  within  him  a  multitude  of 
lesser  Narren  who,  under  Luther's  leadership,  attack  Christi- 
anity and  plunder  Church  and  monastery.  Ultimately, 
Murner — who  is  represented  in  the  woodcuts  accompanying 
the  poem  as  a  cat  ("der  Murner")  in  a  monk's  cowl — 
succeeds  in  staying  the  work  of  destruction,  and  Luther 
attempts  to  win  him  over  to  his  side  by  giving  him  his 
daughter  in  marriage.  Murner,  however,  discovers  that  she 

1  Reprinted  in  D.N.L.,  17,  2,  i  ff. 


CH.  HI.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      179 

has  a  loathsome  disease,  and  turns  her  out  of  his  house. 
Luther,  mortally  insulted  by  this  affront,  dies,  and  with  him 
dies  the  great  fool,  the  Reformation.  Never  has  a  national 
movement  been  attacked  with  such  venom  as  in  Von  dent 
grossen  Lutherischen  Narren ;  if  it  had  lain  in  the  power  of 
any  man  to  make  the  Reformation  ridiculous,  that  man  was 
Murner. 

On  the  Protestant  side,  there  was  no  writer  whose  genius 
could  in  any  way  be  compared  with  Murner's.  The  Swiss 
dramatist,  Niklaus  Manuel  (1484-1530),  who  will  be  discussed 
in  the  following  chapter,  was,  as  a  satirist,  perhaps  the  most 
gifted,  but  he  was  not  in  a  position  to  play  an  effective  role 
in  the  religious  conflicts  of  the  time.  On  the  other  hand, 
Erasmus  Alberus  (ca.  1500-53),  who  was  born  at  Sprend-  Erasmus 
lingen,  near  Frankfort,  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Luther  and  Alberus> 

Cel  * 

Melanchthon  and  shared  in  their  hottest  battles.  His  most  53i 
important  work,  Der  Barfiisser  Munche  Eulenspiegel  vnd 
Alcoran,  a  satire  on  the  Catholic  worship  of  saints,  appeared, 
with  a  preface  by  Luther,  in  1542,  and  the  collection  of 
satirical  fables,  Das  Buck  von  der  Tugent  vnd  Wehsheit — 
which  has  been  already  referred  to — in  1550.  These  were, 
on  the  whole,  the  sharpest  literary  weapons  which  the  re- 
formers had  at  their  command. 


i8o 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE     REFORMATION     DRAMA. 

THROUGHOUT  the  middle  ages,  the  drama,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  merely  an  adjunct  of  the  Church,  an  extension  of 
the  ritual,  in  which  the  imagination  had  more  or  less  play. 
But,  with  every  succeeding  century,  the  Mysteries  grew  in 
elaboration  and  importance;  secular  elements  were  introduced, 
and  the  language  of  the  people  gradually  took  the  place  of 
Latin.  It  was  not,  however,  until  nearly  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century  that  the  German  religious  dramas  of  this 
class  reached  the  highest  point  of  their  development  in 
the  elaborate  "Osterspiele,"  performed  in  the  Weinmarkt  of 
Lucerne.1  The  beginnings  of  a  serious  drama  of  a  more  secular 
Tkeophilus  nature  are  to  be  seen  in  the  Low  German  play  Tkeophilus 
°^  ^e  f°urteentn  century,  and  the  Spiel  von  Fraw  Jutten, 
written  in  1480  by  Theodor  Schernberk,  a  priest  of  Miilhausen.2 
Both  dramas  are  forerunners  of  the  Reformation  Faust ;  both 
represent  the  tragedy  of  man's  temptation  by  the  evil  powers, 
and  his  fall.  Theophilus  sells  his  soul  to  the  devil  in 
order  to  attain  worldly  distinction  ;  "  Frau  Jutta  of  England  " 
is  tempted  by  the  powers  of  evil  to  pass  herself  off  as  a  man. 
She  studies  in  Paris,  and  in  Rome  rises  to  high  ecclesiastical 
honours,  being  ultimately  chosen  Pope  under  the  name  of 
Johannes  VIII.;  but  the  devils  who  have  tempted  her  also  bring 
about  her  fall;  her  sex  is  discovered,  and  she  only  escapes 
perdition  by  taking  upon  herself  the  shame  of  the  world.  The 

1  Cp.  F.  Leibing,  Die  Inscenierung  des  sweitdgigen  Luzerner  Osterspieles 
vom  Jahre  1583  durch  Renwart  Cysat,  Elberfeld,  1869. 

2  Theophilus,  ed.  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  Hannover,  1853-54 ;   Fraw 
Jutten  in  A.  von  Keller's  Fastnachtspielc  aus  dent  15'.  Jahrh.  2,  900  ff. 


CH.  IV.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      iSl 

earliest  stages  of  a  purely  secular  comedy  are  to  be  found 
in  the  rough  "  Fastnachtsspiele "  or  Shrovetide  plays  which  The  "Fas- 
became  popular  in  Niirnberg  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  "  Fastnachtsspiel,"  like  the  "  Narren  "  literature 
of  the  age,  was  a  natural  outcome  of  the  amusements  of  the 
carnival.  The  wearing  of  a  mask  was,  in  itself,  the  first  step 
towards  dramatic  representation,  and  in  the  "Schembartlauf" 
(i.e.,  "Maskenlauf"),  organised  every  year  by  the  butchers  and 
cutlers  of  Niirnberg,  from  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  to  the  time  of  Hans  Sachs,  there  were  many  dramatic 
elements  ;  amongst  other  things,  the  "  Schembartlaufer "  re- 
presented symbolically  the  conflict  of  spring  and  winter,  a 
conflict  to  which  the  drama  in  all  literatures  seems  ultimately 
to  lead  back.  The  next  step,  namely,  to  accompany  these 
representations  by  dialogue,  or  to  perform  comic  scenes  of 
everyday  life,  was  the  more  easy,  for  such  scenes  had  already 
been  introduced,  as  episodes,  in  the  religious  drama.  In 
this  way  arose  the  Fastnachtsspiel,  which,  in  its  earliest  stages, 
as  cultivated  by  Hans  Rosenpliit  and  Hans  Folz,  was  little 
more  than  a  comic  dialogue.1 

Although  the  drama  had  thus,  at   the  beginning  of  the  Influence 
sixteenth  century,  only  begun  to  emerge  as  a  literary  form,  no  for^atton 
branch  of  literature  responded  more  quickly  to  the  stimulus  on  the 
of  the  Reformation ;  under  its  influence,  dramatic  literature  drama- 
developed  with  an  extraordinary  energy,  as  if  to  make  up  for 
the  centuries  in  which  it  had  lain  dormant.     There  was  at 
this  epoch  every  promise  that  Germany  would  soon  produce 
a  national  drama  not  inferior  to  that  of  Spain  or  England; 
but  in  the  following  centuries,  the  age  when  this  promise 
might    have    been    realised,   the   land  was   devastated    by  a 
catastrophe    hardly    less    appalling    and    demoralising    than 
the  migrations  of  early  Germanic  times — the  Thirty  Years' 
War.     The  novel,  the  satire,  the  lyric — such  literary  forms 
were  possible  amidst  the  political  confusion  of  the  seven- 
teenth   century,   even    if  they  could    not  flourish ;    but  the 
drama  cannot  exist  in  an  era  of  social  disintegration,  and  the 
dramatic   beginnings    of    the    sixteenth    century,    instead    of 
being  a  prelude  to  something  better,  received  a  check  which 
made  further  development  impossible  for  a  time. 

1  A.  von  Keller,  Fastnachtspiele  aus  dem  15.  Jahrh.  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  28-30, 
46),  1853-58. 


182      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

The  Reformation  drama l  was  not,  however,  an  actual  pro- 
duct of  the  Reformation.  The  medium  from  which  it  sprang 
was  formed,  on  the  one  hand,  by  humanism,  and  on  the 
other,  by  the  free  burgher  spirit.  In  other  words,  although 
the  drama  of  this  period  drew  its  chief  nourishment  from 
the  Reformation,  in  its  first  stages  it  was  a  product  of  causes 
similar  to  those  which  brought  about  the  Reformation,  and 
not  an  immediate  result  of  the  Reformation  itself.  The  in- 
fluence which  the  humanists  exerted  on  the  drama  was,  in  the 
The  Latin  first  instance,  due  to  their  revival  of  Latin  comedy.  Terence, 

school          whose  works  had  been  read  steadily  throughout  the  middle 
comedy.  ...  J .  ,    .  . 

ages,    became    still    more    popular,    the    performance    of   his 

pieces  being  a  favourite  method  of  instruction  in  Latin. 
Even  public  performances  were  instituted  by  the  schools, 
on  which  occasions,  prologues  in  German  acquainted  the 
audience  with  the  subject  of  the  plays.  And,  as  has  already 
been  noted,  a  complete  translation  of  Terence  was  pub- 
lished in  1499.  Plautus  stood  in  almost  as  high  favour 
as  Terence,  and  from  Plautus  to  original  plays  in  imitation 
of  the  Latin  comedy,  the  step  was  a  small  one.  In  1470, 
Wimpfeling's  Stylpho?  the  first  School  Comedy  by  a  German, 
was  produced  at  Heidelberg;  in  1498,  Reuchlin  published 
his  Scenica  Progymnasmata  or  Jfenno,  a  witty  Latin  farce, 
the  most  effective  scene  of  which  is  taken  from  the  French 
farce  of  Maitre  Pathelin ;  and  three  years  later,  Konrad 
Celtes,  who  had  himself  written  a  Ludus  Diana  (1500), 
brought  to  light  the  imitations  of  Terence  by  Hrotsuith 
of  Gandersheim.  Thus  was  laid  the  basis  of  a  Latin 
School  Comedy,  which  not  only  afforded  the  humanistic 
circles  of  the  sixteenth  century  an  outlet  for  their  purely 
literary  aspirations,  but  also  affected  materially  the  develop- 

The  Refor-  ment  of  the  national  drama.3 

drama  in  Switzerland  was  the  focus  of  the   Reformation   drama   in 

Switzer-        the  narrower  sense  of  the  word ;   here  were  produced  the 
land. 

1  Schauspiele  aus  dem  16.  Jahrhundert,  ed.  J.  Tittmann  (Deutsche  Dichter 
des  16.  Jahrh.,  2,  3),  Leipzig,  1868  ;  Das  Drama  der  Reformationszeit,  ed.  R. 
Froning  (D.N.L.,  22  [1895]).     Cp.  J.  Minor's  bibliographical  Einleitung  in 
das  Drama  des  16.  Jahrh.,  in  the  Neudrucke,  Nos.  79,  80,  Halle,  1889,  and  R. 
Genee.  Lehr-  und  Wanderjahre  des  deutschen  Schauspiels,  Berlin,  1882. 

2  Ed.  H.  Holstein,  Berlin,  1892. 

3  On  the  Latin  School  Comedy  in  Germany,  see  C.  H.  Herford,  The  Literary 
Relations  of  England  and  Germany  in  the  idth  Century,  Cambridge,   1886, 
70  ff. 


CH.  IV.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      183 

earliest  Biblical  dramas  as  distinguished  from  formless  mystery 
plays.  In  Basle,  in  the  years  1515  and  1516,  Pamphilus 
Gengenbach,1  a  printer  and  Meistersinger  of  Niirnbe'rg,  P.  Gengen- 
adapted  the  Fastnachtsspiel,  which  had  been  flourishing  in  bach* 
Niirnberg  for  at  least  a  generation,  to  moral  and  religious 
ends.  In  Die  Gouchmat  he  satirises,  as  his  opponent  Murner 
a  year  or  two  after,  the  "  fools  of  love " ;  in  Der  Nollhart 
(1517),  again,  he  throws  into  dialogue  form  the  prophecies 
of  a  hermit ;  but  both  pieces  are  rather  satires  in  the 
interests  of  the  Reformation  than  actual  dramas.  An 
important  representative  of  the  Swiss  Protestant  comedy 
is  Niklaus  Manuel  (1484-1 53o),2  a  native  of  Berne,  dis-  N.Manuel, 
tinguished  not  only  as  a  poet,  but  as  a  soldier  and  a  I484-i53°- 
painter.  At  Shrovetide  of  the  year  1 5  2  2  a  play  of  Manuel's 
was  performed  "darinn  die  warheit  in  schimpffs  wyss  (i.e., 
scherzweise)  vom  Pabst  vnd  siner  priesterschafft  gemeldet 
wiirt";  it  is  an  effective  satire  on  the  ambition  and  worldly 
splendour  of  the  Pope  and  his  servants,  contrasted  with  the 
simple  life  of  Christ  and  His  disciples.  Manuel  here  attempts 
something  more  ambitious  than  a  Fastnachtsspiel ;  with  the 
latter  he  incorporates  the  more  elaborate  effects  of  the  later 
Swiss  Mystery.  He  draws  his  figures  with  a  rough  but  sure 
hand ;  his  language  is  gross,  but  it  is  the  forcible  and  humor- 
ous grossness  of  the  peasants'  speech,  and,  when  he  likes, 
no  anti-Reformation  satirist  is  more  bitter  or  ruthless  than 
he.  In  1525  Manuel  produced  the  admirable  Fastnachtsspiel, 
Der  Ablasskriimer^  and  in  1526,  Barbali,  a  protest  against 
nunneries.  His  best  satire,  and,  after  Murner's,  the  best  of 
the  Reformation  period,  is,  however,  the  Dialogue,  Von  der 
Messz  kranckheit  vnd  jrem  letsten  willen,  which  appeared  in 
1528. 

The  drama  of  the  Reformation  was  not  long  restricted  to  The  Para- 
Switzerland.     In  1527  a  Parabell  vam  vorlorn  Szohn?  written  Mfvam 

**     '  '  vorlorn 

in  a  Low  German  dialect  by  Burkard  Waldis,  who  has  been  Szohn  by 
noticed  above  as  a  fable-writer,  was  performed  in  Riga,  and  ^  Waldisi 
two   years   later   a    Dutch    humanist,   Guilielmus   Gnaphaeus 
(1493-1568),   produced  a  Latin   drama,  Acolastusf  on  the 

1  Ed.  K.  Goedeke,  Hannover,  1856.     Cp.  R.  Froning,  I.e.,  i  ff. 

2  Ed.  J.  Baechtold,  Frauenfeld,  1878.      Cp.  J.  Tittmann,  I.e.,  i,  i  ff. ;  R. 
Froning,  I.e.,  13  ff. 

3  Ed.  G.  Milchsack  (Neudrucke,  30),  Halle,  1881.     Cp.  Froning,  /.<:..  31  ff. 

4  Ed.  J.  Bolte,  Berlin,  1890. 


184     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN   LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Sixt  Birck, 
I50I-54. 


P.  Rebhun, 
ca.  1500-46. 
Susanna, 
1535- 


Die 

Hochzeit 
su  Cana, 
1538. 


same  theme.  Waldis's  piece  is  an  obvious  imitation  of 
the  humanistic  comedy ;  it  is  planned  on  the  model  of 
Terence,  and  divided  into  acts,  which  are  separated  from 
one  another  by  hymns.  The  tone  of  the  play  is  popular, 
and,  like  its  author's  fables,  it  bears  the  imprint  of  his 
Lutheran  principles.  From  about  1530  onwards,  the  new 
Biblical  drama  made  rapid  strides.  The  Latin  Acolastus  was 
translated  into  German  verse  in  Switzerland ;  a  schoolmaster 
of  Augsburg,  Sixt  Birck  (Xystus  Betulius,  1501-54)  produced 
at  Basle  in  1532  a  comedy  on  Susanna,  and  Johann  Kolross, 
a  native  of  Basle,  followed  with  what  might  be  described  as  a 
Morality,  the  Spil  von  Fiinfferley  betrachtnussen  (i  532).1  Both 
these  plays  betray,  in  their  strophic  choruses,  the  influence  of 
the  School  Comedy.  Poetically,  the  best  drama  of  the 
sixteenth  century  on  the  subject  of  Susanna  was  not  Birck's, 
but  that  by  the  Saxon  pastor,  Paul  Rebhun  (ca.  i5oo-46).2 
Rebhun's  Susanna,  which  shows  that  its  author  was  familiar 
with  his  predecessor's  work,  is,  in  the  first  instance,  remark- 
able for  its  ambitious  versification.  In  this  piece,  Rebhun 
has  attempted  to  adapt  to  German  requirements  the  Latin 
metres  which  the  humanist  poets  delighted  in  imitating. 
Each  of  his  characters  speaks,  as  the  author  himself  boasts, 
in  a  different  measure,  with  the  result  that  the  play  is  a 
kind  of  metrical  mosaic.  In  a  second  and  much  inferior 
piece,  Die  Hochzeit  zu  Cana  (1538),  Rebhun  carries  out  the 
same  plan,  but  he  was  obviously  in  advance  of  his  time  ; 
it  was  not  until  after  Opitz  had  appeared  that  the  German 
people  took  a  serious  interest  in  questions  of  metric.  The 
taste  of  the  public  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  an 
adaptor  converted  Rebhun's  ingenious  metres  into  the  simple 
rhymed  couplets  known  later  as  "  Knittelverse,"  the  prevail- 
ing type  of  German  verse  in  the  sixteenth  century.  But  in 
other  respects  this  Susanna,  which  was  publicly  performed 
in  1535,  is  a  remarkable  drama.  The  sense  of  form, 
which  shows  itself  in  the  verse,  is  also  to  be  observed  in 
the  disposition  and  plan  of  the  play  as  a  whole ;  it  is 
one  of  the  best-constructed  German  plays  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  In  addition  to  this,  there  is  a  pleasing  freshness 

1  Both  dramas  are  reprinted  in  J.  Baechtold's  Schweizerische  Schauspiele  des 
16.  Jahrh.  (3  vols.,  Zurich,  1890-93),  i,  57  ff.  and  2,  i  ff. 

2  Ed.  H.  Palm  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  49),  1859;  the  Susanna  by  J.  Tittmann, 
I.e.,  i,  25  ff. ;  and  R.  Froning,  I.e.,  101  ff. 


CH.  IV.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      185 

in    the   author's   method   of  adapting   the  Biblical  story  to 
the  ordinary  conditions  of  German  life,  which  lends  interest 
to  Susanna  apart  from   its   technical  merits.     A  Schb'ne  vnd  B.  Krflger's 
lustige   newe  Action    Von   dem  Anfang   vnd  Ende  der  Welf,  ^"{a£^de 
darin  die  gantze  Historia  vnsers  Herrn  vnd  Heylands  Jhesu  der  Welt, 
Christi  begriffen    (isSo),1    by    Bartholomaeus   Kriiger,   is,  as  IS8°- 
its   title   implies,    more   of   a   return    to   the   mystery  -  play 
than  an  advance  on  the  part  of  the  Reformation  drama. 

From  the  School  Comedy  the  German  dramatists  thus  ac- 
quired a  sense  of  form ;  in  return,  the  Latin  writers  borrowed 
ideas  from  the  vernacular  drama;  the  Latin  comedy,  too, 
was  placed  at  the  service  of  the  Reformation.  Thomas  T.  Kirch- 
Kirchmayer,  or,  with  his  Latin  name,  Naogeorgus  (1511-63),  myyer> 
infused  into  his  many  Latin  dramas — Pammachius  (1538), 
Incendia  (1541),  and,  best  of  all,  Mercator  (1540) — which 
were  all  sooner  or  later  translated  into  German,2  the 
controversial  virulence  of  a  reformer :  there  is,  on  the 
whole,  more  polemic  in  his  pieces  than  dramatic  genius. 
The  master  of  the  humanistic  drama  of  Protestantism  was 
the  unhappy  Philipp  Nikodemus  Frischlin  (i547-9o).3  A  p.  N. 
native  of  Wiirtemberg,  Frischlin  became  Professor  of  Poetry  Frischlin. 
in  Tubingen  in  1568.  The  envy  of  his  colleagues,  his  un- 
regulated life  and  his  attacks  on  the  nobility  ultimately 
rendered  his  position  insecure.  In  1582,  he  exchanged  his 
academic  chair  for  the  rectorship  of  a  school  at  Laibach, 
in  Carniola,  where,  however,  he  only  remained  for  a  short 
time.  He  returned  to  Wurtemberg,  but  his  unbridled 
satirical  talents  were  once  more  disastrous  to  him.  He 
attacked  the  Duke  of  Wiirtemberg's  councillors  in  a  scur- 
rilous pamphlet,  the  consequence  of  which  was  that  in 
1590  he  was  made  prisoner  and  thrown  into  the  castle  of 
Hohenurach.  A  few  months  later  he  lost  his  life  in  an 
attempt  to  escape  from  this  prison.  Frischlin  has  left  nine  His 
plays,  two  of  which  are  described  as  tragedies,  the  others  as 
comedies,  though  the  reason  for  the  distinction  is  not  clear. 
Amongst  the  latter  are  a  Rebecca  (1576),  a  Susanna  (1577) — 

1  Reprinted  by  J.  Tittmann,  I.e.,  2,  i  ff. 

2  A  German  version  of  Pammachius  in  R.  Froning,  I.e.,  183  ff. ;  the  original 
has  been  edited  by  J.  Bolte  and  E.  Schmidt,  Berlin,  1891. 

3  Cp.  F.  D.  Strauss,  N.  Frischlins  Leben  vnd  Schriften,  Frankfort,  1856 ; 
Strauss  also  edited  Frischlin's  Deutsche  Dichlungen  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  41), 
1857- 


1 86     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

on  which  the  influence  of  both  Birck  and  Rebhun  is  noticeable 
— and  a  play  based  on  a  German  subject,  Hildegardis  magna 
(1579),  the  Hildegard  here  being  Charles  the  Great's  Swabian 
wife ;  but  all  these  pieces  are  in  Latin.  A  second  comedy 
from  German  history,  Fraw  Wendelgard  (1579),  has  as  its 
heroine  a  daughter  of  Kaiser  Heinrich  I.,  and  is  written  in 
German.  During  his  imprisonment,  Frischlin  planned  a 
series  of  Biblical  plays  in  the  vernacular ;  like  Hrotsuith  of 
Gandersheim,  he  had  the  intention  of  superseding  the  Latin 
Terence  with  a  "Terentius  Christianus."  To  this  group  of 
plays  belong  Ruth  and  Die  Hochzeit  zu  Cana.  For  his  ex- 
ceptional satirical  powers,  Frischlin  found  better  scope  in 
pieces  of  more  actual  interest,  such  as  the  Priscianus  vapulans 
(1578),  in  which  the  barbarous  Latin  of  the  middle  ages  is 
satirised,  &a&  Julius  Ctzsar  Redivivus  (begun  in  1572,  but  not 
finished  until  1584).  In  the  latter  play,  which  is  an  in- 
teresting testimony  to  Frischlin's  patriotism,  Julius  Caesar  and 
Cicero  are  represented  as  returning  to  the  upper  world ;  the 
inventions  of  printing  and  gunpowder  fill  them  with  wonder, 
and  they  extol  the  German  humanists  at  the  expense  of 
those  of  Italy.  Phasma  (1580),  again,  parts  of  which  are  in 
German,  is  a  comedy  of  Frischlin's  own  time,  its  subject 
being  the  conflicts  of  the  various  Protestant  sects.  The 
composition  of  these  dramas  is  often  loose  and  careless,  but 
this  defect  is  counterbalanced  by  a  fineness  of  character- 
drawing  which  is  not  common  in  the  "  bookish  "  drama  of 
the  humanists.  Besides  plays,  Frischlin  has  left  a  couple  of 
epics,  a  volume  of  elegies  and  odes,  besides  two  learned 
philological  works  on  Latin  grammar,  but  all  these  are  in 
Latin.  In  general,  he  gives  the  impression  of  having  written 
easily.  His  German  writings  met  with  discouraging  contempt 
on  the  part  of  his  colleagues  and  friends,  but  even  had  this 
not  been  so,  he  would  have  remained  a  Latin  poet  and  a 
humanist ;  his  literary  horizon  was,  after  all,  no  wider  than 
that  of  other  humanists  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  his 
influence  upon  the  development  of  the  German  drama  was 
hardly  proportionate  to  his  dramatic  gifts. 
Hans  The  chief  dramatist  of  this  epoch  was  not,  however,  a 

h-%  6  humanist,  but  a  simple  and  comparatively  unlearned  cobbler 
of  Niirnberg.  The  son  of  a  Niirnberg  tailor,  Hans  Sachs 
was  born  on  the  5th  of  November  1494;  he  enjoyed  a 


CH.  IV.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      1 87 

fair  education  for  his  time,  mastered  Latin  and  made  at 
least  a  beginning  to  the  study  of  Greek.  In  1509  he 
was  apprenticed  to  his  trade.  Although  he  seems  soon 
to  have  forgotten  his  classical  acquirements  after  leaving 
school,  he  retained  an  interest  in  literature,  and  especially 
in  that  burgher  poetry  which  had  been  revived  in  Niirnberg 
in  the  fifteenth  century  by  men  like  Rosenpliit  and  Folz. 
Sachs  was  initiated  into  the  art  of  the  Meistergesang  by 
a  weaver,  Lienhard  Nunnenpeck,  and  made  such  rapid 
progress  that  in  the  course  of  his  "  Wanderjahre  "  (1511-16) 
he  gained  a  reputation  for  his  verses.  In  1516  he  re- 
turned to  his  native  town,  and  three  years  later  married. 
Shoemaking  was  the  business  of  his  life,  poetry  the  occu- 
pation of  his  leisure  hours.  But  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
during  which  time  he  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
Ntirnberg  Meistersingers,  his  productiveness  in  verse-writing 
was  inexhaustible,  with  the  result  that  few  poets  in  the  history 
of  literature  have  left  behind  them  such  an  enormous  quantity 
of  verse.  In  1567  he  made  an  inventory  of  his  own 
works,  and  at  that  time  they  extended  to  sixteen  volumes 
of  "  Gesangbiicher,"  containing  4275  "  Meistergesange,"  and 
eighteen  volumes  of  "  Spruchbiicher,"  containing  1773  poems, 
of  which  more  than  two  hundred  were  plays.1  He  died  on 
the  i Qth  of  January  1576. 

As  soon  as  Hans  Sachs  returned  to  Niirnberg  from  his  As  Meister- 
"  Wanderjahre "  he  became  an  active  member  of  the  "  Sing-  sinser> 
schule"  there.  He  came  home  laden  not  only  with  fresh 
experiences,  but  with  wider  literary  ideas  than  the  Niirnberg 
Meistersingers  dreamed  of,  and  he  at  once  set  about  raising 
the  Meistergesang  out  of  its  traditional  groove.  Heir  of  the 
great  activity  in  translation  which,  as  we  have  seen,  came  in 
the  train  of  humanism  and  the  Renaissance,  Sachs  plunged 
his  hands  into  the  stores  of  anecdote  and  story  that  lay  at 
his  door;  Arigo's  translation  of  Boccaccio's  Decamerone  was 
the  first  of  the  many  sources  from  which  the  materials  of  his 

1  Ed.  A.  von  Keller  and  E.  Gotze  for  the  Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  in  23  vols.,  1870- 
96 ;  the  Fasinachtsspiele  have  also  been  edited  by  E.  Gbtze,  7  vols.,  in  the 
Halle  Neudrucke,  1880-87,  tne  Fabeln  und  Schwdnke  in  the  same  series  and  by 
the  same  editor  (3  vols.  have  appeared),  Halle,  1893-1900.  Editions  of  selec- 
tions by  K.  Goedeke  and  J.  Tittmann  in  Deutsche  Dichter  des  16.  Jahrk.,  4-6, 
2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1883-85,  and  B.  Arnold  in  D.N.L.,  20,  21  [1885].  Cp.  R. 
Gen£e,  Hans  Sachs  und  seine  Zeit,  Leipzig,  1894,  and  C.  Schweitzer,  Etude  svr 
la  vie  et  les  ceuvres  de  Hans  SafAs,  Paris,  1887. 


188     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 

poetry  were  derived.  If  only  on  this  account,  Sachs  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  forerunner  of  the  Renaissance  in  Germany, 
but  his  work  also  bears  testimony  to  the  active  interest  he 
took  in  the  spiritual  movement  of  his  time  and  country. 
Indeed,  his  vigorous  Protestantism  threatened,  at  the  begin- 
ning, to  bring  him  into  conflict  with  his  fellow-townsmen. 
Die  In  Die  Wittembergisch  Nachtigall  (1523)  he  greeted  the 

Reformation  with  enthusiasm  :  — 


gall  i?23.  "  Wach  auff  !  es  nahent  gen  dem  tag  ! 

Ich  hor  singen  im  griinen  hag 
Ein  wunigkliche  nachtigall, 
Ir  stim  durchklinget  berg  vnd  thai. 
Die  nacht  neigt  sich  gen  Occident, 
Der  tag  geht  auff  von  orient, 
Die  rotpriinstige  morgenrot 
Hier  durch  die  triiben  wolcken  got. 
Darauss  die  liechte  sonn  thut  blicken."1 

While  the  Pope  as  lion,  the  priests  as  wolves,  beset  the  Christ- 
ian herd  by  the  moonlight  of  false  doctrine,  the  nightingale 
of  Wittemberg,  Luther,  sings  loud  and  clear,  proclaiming  the 
dawn  of  a  new  day  to  the  world.  This  "  Reimrede  "  was 
soon  on  all  lips,  and  aided  materially  in  the  work  of  the 
Reformation.  Hardly  less  far-reaching  in  its  effects  was  a 
prose  Disputation  zwischen  einem  Chorherren  vnd  einem 
Dialogues.  Schuhmacher?  which  Sachs  wrote  in  the  following  year.  The 
form  of  this  dialogue  suggests  the  humanistic  methods  of 
attack,  but  it  is  distinguished  from  them  by  the  genial  humour 
with  which  the  two  disputants  are  characterised  ;  Sachs's  satire 
is  without  bitterness. 

It  is  not,  however,  as  a  furtherer  of  the  Reformation  that 
Hans  Sachs  takes  his  place  in  the  literary  movement  of  his 
time.  Nor  is  it  as  a  Meistersinger  in  the  narrower  sense  of 
that  word,  although  beyond  question  he  was  the  greatest 
Meistersinger  of  the  sixteenth  century;  indeed,  whether  we 
turn  to  his  Meisterlieder,  his  religious  poetry,  his  parables, 
or  his  fables,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  is  without  a  rival 
among  his  contemporaries.  But  as  a  Meistersinger,  he  only 
followed  with  more  success  lines  which  other  Meistersingers 
also  followed  or  learned  to  follow.  To  find  Hans  Sachs  as 
a  pioneer,  and  virtually  as  a  creator  of  new  literary  forms, 

1  B.  Arnold's  edition,  i,  in. 

2  Ed.  R.  Kohler,  Vier  Dialoge  von  Ham  Sachs,  Weimar,  1858. 


CH.  IV.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      189 

we  must  turn  to  his  "Schwanke"  and  his  dramas.  As  a  As 
"  Schwankdichter,"  a  teller  of  short,  witty  anecdotes  in  verse, 
always  pointed  with  a  moral,  Hans  Sachs  is  unsurpassed.  The 
Schwank  was  one  of  the  favourite  forms  of  poetry  at  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  but  in  Sachs's  hands  the  manner  of  telling 
the  anecdote  became  for  the  first  time  as  interesting  as  the 
anecdote  itself.  He  loved  stories — loved  them  indiscrimin- 
ately. His  delight  in  them  was  akin  to  that  of  a  child,  and 
he  was  never  weary  of  re-telling  them  in  his  homely  but 
hearty  "  Knittelverse."  Through  everything  he  writes,  shines 
his  own  genial  personality;  humour  is  never  absent,  and 
the  bitterness  of  a  Brant  or  a  Murner  was  foreign  to  his 
nature.  Schwanke  such  as  Der  Eiszapfen  (1536),  Sankt 
Peter  mit  der  Geiss  (i  555),  Sankt  Peter  mit  den  Landsknechten 
(1556),  Der  Bauer  mit  dem  bodenlosen  Sack  (1563),  are  genu- 
ine masterpieces,  even  judged  by  modern  criteria  of  verse- 
narrative.  The  majority  of  Sachs's  stories  were  drawn  from 
his  wide  reading,  but  he  does  not  always  restrict  him- 
self to  subjects  of  which  he  has  read  or  heard  ;  his  fables 
and  allegories  show  that  he  had  considerable  powers  of  in- 
vention. A  favourite  allegorical  figure  with  him,  for  in- 
stance, is  the  dream,  which  he  employs  effectively  in  the 
poems  directed  against  Niirnberg's  enemy,  the  cruel  Markgraf 
Albrecht  von  Brandenburg. 

More  important  than  his  "  Schwanke  "  were  Sachs's  dramas.  His  Fast- 
He  found  the  "  Fastnachtsspiel "  or  Shrovetide  play  in  the 
rude,  primitive  condition  in  which  the  earlier  Niirnberg  poets 
Rosenpliit  and  Folz  had  left  it ;  he  eliminated  the  coarseness, 
for  which  he  substituted  his  own  kindly  humour.  The  Fast- 
nachtsspiel did  not  certainly  become  very  dramatic  in  his 
hands,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  this  type  of  play 
never  altogether  lost  its  original  character  of  dialogue  rather 
than  action ;  the  Fastnachtsspiel,  as  Sachs  conceived  it,  is 
virtually  only  a  Schwank  in  dialogue  form.  Nowhere,  how- 
ever, does  his  ability  to  draw  the  people  of  the  world  in 
which  he  lived  show  to  better  advantage  than  in  these 
plays,  for  their  dramatic  nature  imposed  on  the  poet  the 
necessity  of  drawing  his  characters  clearly  and  with  bold 
strokes.  In  this  power  of  portraiture,  this  ability  to 
pick  out  the  essentials  of  character,  Sachs's  poetic  genius 
reveals  itself,  more  than  anywhere  else.  His  knights  and 


I9O     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 

priests,  peasants  and  rogues,  jealous  husbands  and  greedy 
merchants,  deceitful  women  and  lazy  servants,  are  no  less 
representative  literary  types  of  their  time  than  were  the 
figures  which  the  German  dramatists  of  the  early  eighteenth 
century  adapted  from  Moliere  and  Holberg.  The  best  of 
Hans  Sachs's  Fastnachtsspiele,  such  as  Der  farend  Schuler  im 
Paradeiss  (1550),  Fraw  Warheit  wil  niemand  herbergen  (1550), 
Das  heiss  Eysen  (1551),  Der  Baur  im  Fegfeuer  (1552),  are 
interesting  enough  still  to  be  read  with  pleasure,  and  even  to 
be  performed. 

Sachs's  As  a  dramatist  on  a  more  ambitious  scale,  Hans  Sachs  was 

dramas  not  so  successful.  From  his  standpoint,  a  tragedy  or  comedy 
only  differed  from  a  Fastnachtsspiel  in  so  far  as  it  was  longer 
and  its  plot  more  complicated ;  it  was  also  possible  to  divide 
it  roughly  into  parts  which,  following  the  humanists,  he 
designated  "Actus."  Of  the  true  nature  of  the  drama,  of 
the  elementary  requirements  of  dramatic  construction,  he 
knew  nothing.  His  choice  of  subjects  for  dramatic  treat- 
ment was  no  less  catholic  than  in  the  case  of  the 
Schwanke ;  he  dramatised  the  most  difficult  subjects  with- 
out knowing  that  they  were  difficult.  The  Bible,  the 
Greek  classics,  the  Latin  dramatists,  and  even  a  German 
saga  such  as  that  of  Siegfried  (Der  hornen  Sewfriedt,  1557), 
were  equally  acceptable  to  him,  and  he  told  all  his  stories  in 
the  same  manner.  That  the  personages  of  remote  ages  differed 
in  any  way  from  those  who  were  familiar  to  him  in  every- 
day life,  that  kings  and  queens  should  behave  or  speak  other- 
wise than  the  ordinary  burgher  of  Niirnberg,  is  a  fact  of  which 
he  took  no  account.  Even  God  Himself,  who  is  introduced 
into  the  Comedie  Die  vngleichen  Kinder  Eva  wie  sie  Gott  der 
Herr  anredt  (1553),  is  represented  as  an  ordinary  kindly 
priest.  "  Adam  vnnd  Eva,"  says  the  stage  direction  at  the 
beginning  of  the  third  act,  "geen  ein,  vnd  Abel  selb  sechst, 
Kain  auch  selb  sechst." 

"Adam  spricht: 
Eva,  ist  das  hauss  auch  gezirt, 
Auff  das,  wenn  der  Herr  kummen  wirt, 
Das  es  als  schon  vnd  liistig  ste, 
Wie  ich  dir  hab  befolhen  ee  ? 

Eva  spricht : 

Alle  ding  war  schon  zu  bereyt 
Za  nechten  vmb  die  vesperzeit. 


CH.  IV.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      19! 

Adam  spricht : 

Ir  kinderlein,  ich  sich  den  Herrn 
Mit  seinen  Engeln  kummen  von  ferrn. 
Nun  stelt  euch  in  die  ordnung  fein 
Vnd  bald  der  Herre  dritt  herein, 
Neygt  euch  vnd  bietet  im  die  hend  ! 
Schaw  zu,  wie  stelt  sich  an  dem  end 
Der  Kain  vnd  sein  galgenrott 
Sam  wollen  sie  fliehen  vor  Gott ! 

Der  Herr  geet  ein  mit  zweyen  Engeln,  geyd  den  segen  vnd  spricht : 
Der  fried  sey  euch,  ir  kinderlein  ! " J 

The  technique  of  Hans  Sachs's  dramas  is  virtually  that  of  His 
the  mystery-plays ;  his  heroes  are  born,  live,  and  die,  wander  dra 
from  one  part  of  the  world  to  another,  in  the  course  of  a 
few  hundred  lines.  The  action  is  assisted,  where  neces- 
sary, by  the  "Ehrenhold,"  or  herald,  who  also  speaks  the 
prologue  and  epilogue.  No  attempt  is  made  to  preserve 
unity  of  time  or  place,  and  the  unity  of  action  is  almost  as 
loosely  complied  with.  German  dramatists  had  yet  to  learn 
that  to  make  actors  recite  rhymed  dialogue  was  hardly  even 
the  beginning  of  a  national  drama ;  and,  as  will  be  seen  in 
the  following  chapter,  their  first  lesson  in  the  practical  side 
of  dramatic  art  came,  towards  the  close  of  the  century,  from 
England. 

Hans  Sachs  represents  only  one  aspect  of  the  intellectual 
and  artistic  life  which  made  Niirnberg,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  the  perfect  type  of  a  free  German 
"  Reichsstadt."  Besides  Meistersingers  and  chroniclers, 
Niirnberg  numbered  among  its  citizens  eminent  humanists 
like  Wilibald  Pirckheimer  (1470-1530),  sculptors  like  Adam 
Kraft  (1440-1507)  and  Peter  Vischer  (ca.  1455-1529),  and 
above  all,  Germany's  greatest  artist,  Albrecht  Diirer  (1471- 
1528).  Where  the  drama  failed,  art,  in  Diirer's  hands,  suc- 
ceeded ;  not  in  literature,  but  in  Diirer's  many-sided  activity, 
is  to  be  found  the  fullest  expression  of  the  nation's  awaken- 
ing under  the  stimulus  of  the  Reformation. 

i  Edition  by  Keller  and  Gotze,  i  (Stuttg.  Litt  Ver.,  102),  64  f. 


192 


CHAPTER   V. 

SATIRE    AND    DRAMA    IN    THE    LATER    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 

WHILE  the  foundations  of  a  German  Volksdrama  were  being 
laid  by  Hans  Sachs  in  Nurnberg,  the  novel  was  gradually  being 
evolved  from  the  medieval  romance  of  chivalry  in  Western 
Germany.  It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
fiction  of  this  period  was  not  a  pure  form  of  literary  art ;  it 
succeeded  no  more  than  other  forms  of  literature,  in  disso- 
ciating itself  from  satire  and  didacticism ;  and  thus  the  word 
novel  is  hardly  to  be  understood  in  its  modern  significance. 
The  fiction  of  the  Reformation  period,  such  as  it  was,  com- 
j.  Wick-  mences  with  the  Alsatian  Jorg  Wickram  (died  ca.  I560),1  who, 
ca^sao1  ^e  Hans  Sachs,  was  both  Meistersinger  and  dramatist :  besides 
novels,  he  wrote  Fastnachtsspiele  and  Biblical  tragedies — Der 
verlorne  Sun  (1540),  Tobias  (1551) — on  the  model  of  the 
Swiss  dramatists.  His  first  attempt  at  narrative  fiction  was 
probably  an  adaptation  of  a  French  novel  of  adventure, 
Ritter  Galmy  vss  Schottland  (1539),  which  appeared  anony- 
mously. A  more  independent  work  is  the  didactic  romance, 
Der  fungen  Knaben  Spiegel  (1554),  in  which  the  evangelical 
burgher's  love  of  moralising  is  clearly  evident :  in  the 
Irr  Reitend  Pilger  (1556),  again,  the  author's  moral  inten- 
tion is  reinforced  by  satire.  In  the  Knabenspiegel,  and  still 
more  in  the  less  didactic  Goldtfaden  (1557) — stories  in  which 
the  peasant  or  citizen  takes  the  place  of  the  knight,  and  the 
practical  virtues  of  the  middle  class  are  brought  into  the  fore- 
ground— Wickram  introduces  in  fiction  the  new  social  ideas 
which  had  already  manifested  themselves  in  verse  and  satire. 

1  Cp.  W.  Scherer,  Die  Anfdnge  des  deutschen  Prosaromans  und  JiJrg  Wick- 
ram  von  Colmar  (Quellen  und  Forschungen,  21),  Strassburg,  1877. 


CH.  v.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.       193 

If  not  the  first  modern  novelist,  he  is  at  least  the  first  repre- 
sentative of  that  fiction  which  lay  between  medieval  romance, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  modern  social  novel,  as  created 
by  Richardson,  on  the  other.  Wickram  was  a  keen  observer 
of  the  life  around  him,  and  knew  how  to  describe  it ;  but  his 
novels — like  almost  all  the  literature  of  the  century — have 
little  unity :  they  fall  asunder  in  disconnected  episodes  and 
"Schwanke."  Thus  the  most  satisfactory  of  his  books  is  not  a 
novel,  but  the  collection  of  anecdotes  and  witty  tales  which 
he  published  in  1555  under  the  title  Das  Rollwagen  biichlein}-  Das  Roii- 
This  is  a  "Biichlein,  darinn  vil  guter  schwenck  vnd  Historien  ^gff. 
begriffen  werden,  so  man  in  schiffen  vnd  auff  den  rollwegen  I555. 
[i.e.,  stage-coaches],  des-sgleichen  in  scherheiisern  vnnd  bad- 
stuben,  zu  langweiligen  zeiten  erzellen  mag," — in  other  words, 
a  book  of  entertainment  for  the  use  of  travellers.  The  best 
testimony  to  the  popularity  of  the  Rollwagenbiichlein  is  that 
a  large  number  of  imitations  appeared  in  the  course  of  the 
next  few  years.  The  most  popular  of  these  were  J.  Frey's 
Garten gesellschafft (1556),  M.  Montanus's  Wegkurtzer  (1557), 
M.  Lindener's  Katzipori  (1558)  and  Rastbilchlein  (1558),  V. 
Schumann's  Nachtbiichlein  (1559),  and  H.  W.  Kirchhoff's 
Wendvnmuth  (1565-1603);  but,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  the  last  mentioned,  none  can  be  compared  with  Wickram's 
collection. 

Bartholomeus  Ringwaldt  (1530  or  i53i-99),2an  evangelical  B.  Ring- 
pastor  who  was  born  in  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  was  more  of  a  waldt-  ^ 

*53O*99« 

satirist  than  Wickram.  This  writer's  trewer  Eckart  (1588),  a 
half-didactic,  half-satiric  poem  in  rhyming  couplets,  the  hero 
of  which  visits  heaven  and  hell,  became  a  veritable  Volksbuch, 
and  a  longer  poem,  Die  lauter  Warheit  (1585),  although 
obtrusively  didactic,  was  hardly  less  popular.  Ringwaldt 
is  to  be  seen  at  his  best  in  the  dramatic  satire  Specu- 
lum mundi  (1590),  where  the  dissoluteness  of  the  country 
nobility  is  subjected  to  the  lash.  His  Church  hymns,  again, 
have  at  least  one  essential  feature  in  common  with  the  religious 
poetry  of  the  Reformation ;  they  catch  admirably  the  tone  of 
the  Volkslied.  Without  touching  a  high  level,  his  work 
throws  an  interesting  light  on  the  life  and  temper  of  the 

1  Ed.  H.  Kurz,  Deutsche  Bibliothek,  7,  Leipzig,  1865. 

-  Selections  from   Ringwaldt   in   E.  Wolff's  Reinke  de  Vos  vnd  satirisck- 
didaktische  Dichtung  (D.N.L.,  19  [1893]),  471  ff. 

N 


194      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


G.  Rollen- 

hagen, 

1542-1609. 


Der 

Frosck- 

meuseler, 

1595- 


Johann 
Fischart, 
ca.  1550- 
90. 


Grobianus, 
1549,  IBS*- 


later  sixteenth  century  in  Germany.  A  more  gifted  writer 
than  Ringwaldt  was  Georg  Rollenhagen,  who  was  born  near 
Berlin  in  1542  and  died  in  1609.  Rollenhagen,  by  profession 
preacher  and  pedagogue,  began  with  elaborate  school-dramas 
based  on  older  Biblical  plays.  It  was  not  until  1595  that 
he  published  the  work  by  which  he  is  now  alone  remem- 
bered, the  Froschme useler :  der  Frosch  vnd  Meuse  ivunderbare 
Hoffhaltunge?-  a  version  of  the  Battle  of  the  Frogs  and 
Mice  (Batrachomyomachia).  The  Greek  poem  was  a  parody 
on  the  Homeric  epic;  but  Rollenhagen,  who  had  learned 
the  comic  possibilities  of  the  beast  allegory  from  Reinke 
de  Vos,  uses  the  story  as  a  vehicle  for  his  own  views  on  the 
social,  political,  and  especially  the  religious  movement  of  the 
age.  The  Froschmeuseler  is  less  a  beast  epic  than  a  didactic 
satire  in  the  interests  of  the  Reformation.  The  most  pleasing 
side  of  Rollenhagen's  work  is  the  sympathetic  interest  which 
he  takes  in  the  animal  world;  but  he,  too,  lacked  the  sus- 
taining power  which  is  indispensable  to  a  long  work,  and  in 
spite  of  its  promising  beginning,  his  epic  ultimately  breaks 
up  into  a  series  of  loosely  connected  episodes. 

The  master  of  German  satire  in  the  later  sixteenth  century, 
the  heir  ot  Brant  and  Murner,  was  the  Alsatian,  Johann 
Fischart.2  Fischart  "  der  Mentzer " — i.e.,  the  Mainzer,  a 
cognomen  which  his  father  also  bore — was  probably  born  in 
Strassburg  between  1545  and  1550.  He  received  a  good 
humanistic  education  in  Worms  with  Kaspar  Scheidt  (died 
1565),  to  whom  he  seems  to  have  been  related.  Scheidt, 
it  may  be  mentioned,  was  the  translator  of  the  Grobianus, 
that  famous  Latin  satire  on  the "  drunkenness,  viciousness, 
and  coarseness  of  the  age,  which  F.  Dedekind  (ca.  1525-98) 
built  up  round  "  Sankt  Grobianus,"  Brant's  type  of  the 
"grobe  Narr."  Dedekind's  satire  appeared  in  1549,  Scheidt's 
translation 3  in  1551.  Fischart  spent  several  years  in  travel 
and  study,  visiting  France,  Holland,  England,  and  Italy,  and 

1  Ed.  K.  Goedeke,  2  vols.  (Deutsche  Dichter,  8,  9),  Leipzig,  1876.  Cp. 
D.N.L.,  19,  395  ff. 

3  Selected  works,  ed.  K.  Goedeke  (Deutsche  Dichter,  15),  Leipzig,  1880;  A. 
Hauffen  in  D.N.L.,  18,  1-3  [1892-95].  Cp.  E.  Schmidt's  article  on  Fischart 
in  \\\Q  Allg.  deutsche  Biographic,  7  (1878),  31  ff.,  and  P.  Besson,  Etude  sur 
J.  Fischart,  Paris,  1889. 

3  Ed.  G.  Milchsack  (Neudrucke  34,  35),  Halle,  1882.  Cp.  A.  Hauffen, 
Kaspar  Scheldt,  der  Lehrer  Fiscftarts  (Quellen  vnd  Forschungen,  66),  Strass- 
burg, 1889. 


CH.  v.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      195 

acquiring  a  rich  fund  of  knowledge  and  experience  which 
later  found  its  way  in  promiscuous  profusion  into  his  books. 
In  1574  he  graduated  as  doctor  juris  in  Basle,  and  between 

1575  and  1581  all  his  most  important  works  were  published 
in  Strassburg,  where  his  brother-in-law,  Jobin,  had  established 
a  printing-press.     In  1581  he  became  an  advocate  in  Speyer, 
two  years  later  Amtmann  or  district  judge  in  Forbach  near 
Saarbriicken.     His  death  took  place  in   1590  or  1591. 

Fischart   began    his   career   in    1570   as   a   champion    of 
the  Reformation,   by  writing  satires  on  the  Catholics.      Of 
these,  the  most  important  are  a  German  version  of  a  Dutch 
Calvinistic  satire  by  Philipp  Marnix,  which  was  published  in 
1579  under  the  title,   Binenkorb  des  hey  I.   romischen  Imen-  DerBinen- 
schwarms,  and  the   Wunderlichst  vnerhortest  Legend  vnd  Be- 
schreibung  des  Abgefiihrten,  quartirten,  gevierlen  und  viereckech- 
ten  vierhornigen  Htitleins  \der  Jesuileri\,  which  appeared  a  year  hutiein, 
later :  the  latter  is  a  scathing  satire  on  the  Jesuits,  based  on   I58o< 
a  French  model.     Fischart  himself  was  a  pious  and  sturdy 
Protestant,  with  leanings  towards  Calvinism ;  but  he  was  by  no 
means  intolerant  on  questions  of  dogma.     He  followed  the 
steady  advance  of  Protestantism  with  warm  interest,  and  hailed 
with  exultation  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada  in  1588.     l^n 
1578  he  published  his  Philosophisch  Ehzuchtbuchlin^  which  is  Das 
made  up  of  two  small  treatises  of  Plutarch's,  a  dialogue  by  ft*^**' 
Erasmus,  and  other  fragments,  and  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  i578. 
books  of  its  kind  produced  in  the  century  of  the  Refor- 
mation.     As  a  poet,  Fischart  is  seen  to  best  advantage  in 
the   epic   poem,  Das  gliickhafft  Schiff  von   Zurich   (1576),  Dasgiuck- 
which  as  regards  form,  at  least,  is  without  a  rival  in   the 
literature    of   the    sixteenth    century.      In    the    summer   of 

1576  a  number   of  Zurich  citizens  made   in  a  single  day 
the   voyage   to    Strassburg   by   way   of  Limmat,   Aare,    and 
Rhine,  in  order  to  attend  a  shooting  -  festival.     The  bonds 
of  neighbourly  feeling  were  symbolised  by  a  basin  of  "  Hirse- 
brei "  (millet  porridge),  which,  cooked  in  the  morning  before 
the  voyagers  left  Zurich,  still  retained  its  warmth  when  the 
"gliickhafft  Schiff"  arrived  in  the  harbour  of  Strassburg  at 
nightfall.      Fischart's    style,    notwithstanding    an    occasional 
display   of   learning,    has    neither    the    dryness    of   a    mere 
imitation   nor   the   coarseness   of   the   popular   literature   of 
the  day.     His  model  was  the  classical  epic;  the  rivers,  the 


196     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  in. 


Eulen- 
spiegel 
Reimens- 
weiss,  1572. 


Floh  Hax, 
1573- 


landscape,  the  sun  itself,  all  play  a  role  in  the  eventful 
voyage : — 

"  Die  Sonn  het  auch  jr  freiid  damit, 

Das  so  dapffer  das  Schiff  fortschritt 
Vnd  schin  so  hell  inn  dRuder  rinnen, 
Das  sie  von  fern  wie  Spiegel  schinen. 

Das  Gestad  schertzt  auch  mit  dem  Schiff, 

Wann  das  wasser  dem  land  zulieff, 
Dann  es  gab  einen  widerthon 
Gleich  wie  die  Rhuder  thaten  gon. 

Ein  Flut  die  ander  trib  so  gschwind, 

Das  sie  eim  vnderm  gsicht  verschwind. 
Ja  der  Rein  wurf  auch  auff  klein  wallen, 
Die  dantzten  vmb  das  schif  zu  gsellen. 

Inn  summa,  alles  freiidig  war, 

Die  Schiffart  zu  vollbringen  gar."  * 

The  buoyant  exultation  with  which  this  voyage  was  greeted 
by  Fischart  was  not  without  a  certain  political  significance, 
and  twelve  years  later,  Strassburg,  Zurich,  and  Berne  entered 
into  a  formal  alliance  which  he  celebrated  in  "  poetischen 
Gluckwiinschungen ." 

It  was  probably  the  fault  of  the  age  in  which  Fischart 
lived  .that  a  satirical  intention  so  often  lay  behind  his 
humour.  In  general,  his  outlook  upon  life  was  optimistic, 
and  although  he  reviled  the  abuses  of  the  time,  he  did  not 
doubt  that  the  cause  of  Protestantism  would  triumph  and  was 
triumphing.  Amongst  his  earliest  works,  there  is  a  poetic 
version  of  Eulenspiegel — Eulenspiegel  Reimensweiss  (1572) — in 
which  the  satire  of  the  original  is  allowed  to  fall  into  the 
background.  His  own  additions,  which  increased  the  original 
"  Schwanke  "  to  some  three  times  their  bulk,  weakened,  how- 
ever, instead  of  improving  the  work.  He  was  more  success- 
ful with  the  burlesque  epic  Floh  Haz,  Weiber  Traz  (1573),  in 
which,  with  coarse  but  genuine  humour,  the  flea  is  made 
to  complain  of  the  injustice  of  his  lot.2 

Masterly  as  was  Fischart's  command  of  verse,  his  importance 
is  to  be  sought  rather  in  his  prose  works.  Here  he  learned 
his  art  from  a  congenial  master,  Frangois  Rabelais.  The  in- 
fluence of  Rabelais  is  first  noticeable  on  Fischart's  witty 
parody  of  weather  prognostication,  Aller  Practik  Grossmutter, 
written  in  1572,  and  on  the  translation  from  the  Latin  of  two 

1  A.  Hauffen's  edition,  i,  144  (11.  387  ff.)     (Schin  inn  dRuder  rinnen,  "schien 
in  die  Furchen  der  Ruder";  gon,  "gehen"  ;  zu  gsellen,  "als  Gefahrten.") 

2  With  the  exception  of  the  Binenkorb,  the  works  mentioned  above  will  be 
found  in  A.  Hauffen's  edition.     (Haz,  "  Hetze"  ;  Traz,  "Trotz.") 


CH.  V.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.       197 

ironical  eulogies  on  gout,  Podagrammisch  Trostbiichlin  (1577). 
But  his  masterpiece  is  unquestionably  the  translation  of  the 
first  book  of  Rabelais's  great  comic  romance,  to  which  he 
gave  the  title  Affenteurliche  vnd  Vngeheurliche  Geschichtschrift  Die  Ge- 
— or,  in  the  second  edition,  Affentheurlich  Naupengeheurliche  schicktkiit- 
Geschichtklitterung —  Vom  Leben  rhaten  vnd  Thaten  der  for  i57S. 
langen  weilen  Vollenwolbeschraiten  Helden  vnd  Herrn  Grand- 
gusier,  Gargantoa  vnd  Pantagruel  (i575).x  The  most  inter- 
esting feature  of  this  work  is  the  remarkable  way  in  which 
Fischart  has  Germanised  the  French  novel ;  as  he  himself 
says,  it  is  "  auf  den  Teutschen  Meridian  visirt."  Rabelais  is 
assimilated  as  never  original  was  assimilated  by  a  translator 
before,  even  the  proper  names  being  rendered  by  German 
equivalents.  Indeed,  Fischart  hardly  translates ;  he  uses  his 
author  merely  as  a  channel  through  which  to  express  his 
own  ideas  and  consequently  the  German  Gargantua  has  ex- 
panded to  some  three  times  the  size  of  the  original.  He 
finds  an  opportunity  in  this  book  for  displaying  both  his 
wide  humanistic  culture  and  his  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
German  people.  The  two  main  currents  of  German  life  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  as  represented  by  the  learned  humanist 
on  the  one  side  and  the  Protestant  "Volk"  on  the  other, 
seem  here  to  run  side  by  side.  From  an  artistic  point  of 
view,  the  originality  of  the  Geschichtklitterung  is  not  to 
its  advantage.  The  style  of  the  book  is  clumsy  and  un- 
wieldy, and  the  humour  is  weakened  by  persistent  exaggera- 
tion. Every  idea  in  the  original  is  extended  and  contorted 
until  it  is  almost  past  recognition ;  where  Rabelais  is  content 
with  one  epithet,  the  German  writer  has  a  dozen.  As  a  coiner 
of  comic  words,  Fischart  has  the  talent  of  an  Aristophanes, 
although  here,  too,  his  love  of  exaggeration  leads  him  into 
tasteless  extremes,  and  the  heaping  up  of  attributes  and 
metaphors,  which  is  to  be  traced  in  all  the  humorous  prose 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  begins  to  lose  its  effectiveness  in 
Fischart's  hands.  The  old  vice  of  formlessness,  which  clings 
to  the  literature  of  this  epoch,  a  vice  to  which  Fischart  once 
— in  the  Gliickhafft  Schiff—rose  superior,  sets  in  again  here 
in  full  force. 

1  Ed.  A.  Alsleben  in  the  Neudrucke,  65-71,  Halle,  1887  (the  title  might  be 
modernised,  "  Abenteuerliche  schrullenhaft-geheuerliche  Geschichtskladde " 
&c. ) ;  Aller  Practik  Grossmutter  (a  "  Practik  "  was  a  kind  of  calendar),  in  the 
same  series,  2,  Halle,  1876 ;  the  Podagrammisch  Trostbiichlein  in  A.  Hauffen. 
I.e.,  3,  i  ff. 


198     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Transla- 
tion of 
A  madis  dt 
Gaula, 
I572- 


The  Volks- 
buch  of 
D.  Johann 
Faust, 
1587- 


For  a  writer  of  such  originality,  Fischart  was  remarkably 
dependent  upon  others  not  merely  for  the  materials  of  his 
books,  but  even  for  the  books  themselves :  he  invariably 
preferred  translating  an  old  work  to  creating  a  new  one.  At 
the  same  time,  much  of  his  literary  work  was  obviously  not  a 
matter  of  choice,  but  of  necessity.  This  was  undoubtedly  the 
case  with  his  translation  of  the  sixth  book  of  the  French 
romance,  Amadis  de  Gaula  (AmtuKs  aus  Frankreich ;  1572). 
The  five  earlier  books  had  appeared  before  this  date,  and 
so  popular  was  the  romance  in  Germany,  that  down  to  the 
close  of  the  eighteenth  century  eighteen  more  books  were 
added  by  various  hands.  Another  translation  of  Fischart's 
would  also  seem  to  have  been  undertaken  for  his  brother- 
in-law  and  not  on  his  own  initiative — that  of  Jean  Bodin's 
De  Magorum  Dczmonomania  (1581).  It  is,  at  least,  difficult 
to  reconcile  the  suppression  of  witches  which  this  book 
preaches,  with  Fischart's  own  Protestant  tolerance.  But  to 
judge  from  his  version  of  a  Middle  High  German  poem, 
Ritter  Peter  von  Stauffenberg  (I588),1  he  was  probably, 
after  all,  not  above  the  belief  in  devils  and  witches, 
which  neither  humanism  nor  the  Reformation  had  power 
to  eradicate. 

With  regard  to  its  faith,  its  superstition,  its  knowledge  and 
aspiration,  the  age  of  the  Reformation  is  best  reflected  in  a 
Volksbuch  by  an  unknown  author,  published  by  Johann  Spies 
in  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  in  1587 — namely,  the  Historia  von 
D,  Johann  Fausten,  dem  weitbeschreyten  Zauberer  vnd  Schwartz- 
kunstler?  The  traditions  which  had  gradually  formed  them- 
selves round  this  typical  figure  of  the  sixteenth  century 
here  take  form  for  the  first  time.  The  Faust  of  the 
Volksbuch,  like  so  many  dreamers  of  the  time,  hopes  to 
obtain  by  means  of  alchemy,  astrology,  and  magic,  rest  from 
the  desires  and  longings  that  torture  him  ;  so  completely, 
indeed,  was  Faust  associated  with  all  that  was  considered 
daring  in  thought  or  invention,  that,  at  an  early  date,  the 
popular  imagination  identified  him  with  the  printer  Fust. 
And  this  Faust,  in  the  words  of  the  Volksbuch,  "name  an 
sich  Adlers  Fliigel,  wolte  alle  Griind  am  Himmel  vnd  Erden 

1  Ed.  A.  Hauffen,  I.e.,  i,  263  ff. 

2  Ed.  W.  Braune  (Neudrucke,  7,  8),  Halle,  1878.     Cp.  E.  Schmidt,  Charak- 
teristiken,  Berlin,  1886,  i  ff. 


CH.  V.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      199 

erforschen,  dann  sein  Fxirwitz,  Freyheit  vnd  Leichtfertigkeit 
stache  vnnd  reitzte  ihn  also."  He  makes  a  pact  with  the 
devil,  who  opens  up  to  him  new  worlds  of  unlimited  sensual 
enjoyment ;  he  travels  far  and  wide,  to  Italy,  to  the  East, 
conjures  up  the  most  beautiful  women  of  all  lands,  amongst 
them  Helen  of  Troy,  who  lives  with  him  a  year  and  bears 
him  a  son ;  until  at  last  the  twenty-four  years  for  which  he 
had  stipulated  elapse,  and  he  is  carried  off  in  triumph  to  hell. 
Thus,  it  might  be  said,  the  evangelical  spirit  of  Protestant 
theology  avenged  itself  on  the  genii  of  knowledge  and  inquiry, 
which  it  had  itself  set  free.  Two  centuries  of  intellectual 
evolution  had  still  to  pass  before  a  new  humanism  and  a 
new  philosophy  of  life  were  able  to  vanquish  the  narrow 
standpoint  of  Lutheran  Protestantism ;  it  was  almost  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  before  Goethe  discovered  that  the 
longings  and  ambitions  which  bring  about  the  tragedy  in 
Faust's  life  do  not  merit  damnation,  but  belong  to  the  most 
precious  attributes  of  humanity. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  German  New 
drama  entered  upon — or,  at  least,  gave  promise  of  entering 
upon — a  new  stage  of  its  history.  From  the  last  years  of  nings. 
this  century  to  the  middle  of  th,e  following  one,  Germany  was 
repeatedly  visited  by  companies  of  strolling  English  players, 
the  so-called  "Englischen  Comodianten."  These  actors  The"Eng- 
brought  with  them  not  only  the  theatrical  effects  of  the  J^^" 
Elizabethan  theatre,  but  also  the  highly  developed  histrionic  dianten." 
art  of  the  English  stage ;  and  above  all,  they  brought  the 
comic  personage  of  the  English  drama,  the  clown,  or  "  Pickel- 
hering,"  as  he  soon  came  to  be  called  in  Germany.  On  their 
first  visits  to  the  Continent,  the  "Englischen  Comodianten" 
played  only  in  English,  and,  in  the  serious  parts  of  their 
dramas,  had  to  depend  upon  their  pantomimic  abilities  to 
attract  the  public.  But  the  music  and  costumes,  the  blood- 
curdling scenes  and  buffoonery  with  which  the  plays  were 
liberally  furnished,  made  up  for  the  disadvantages  of  the 
foreign  tongue,  and,  at  an  early  date,  the  comic  roles  were 
either  played  entirely  in  German,  or  interspersed  with  as 
much  broken  German  as  the  actor  could  command.  Soon 
these  English  troupes  found  German  imitators,  and  thus  the 
German  theatre,  as  an  institution,  may  be  said  to  have  begun 
with  troupes  of  strolling  actors  who,  to  commend  their  perfor- 


200     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

mances,  described  themselves  as  "  English."  The  repertories 
of  these  companies  consisted  in  the  main  of  translations,  or 
rather  of  mangled  stage-versions  of  popular  English  dramas. 
The  plays  were  in  prose  and  constructed  solely  with  a  view 
to  crass  effect ;  they  are  devoid  of  literary  worth  and  have 
no  value,  except  that  they  opened  a  new  horizon  to  the 
German  drama.  Two  volumes,  containing  eighteen  dramas 
and  a  few  comic  interludes,  were  published  in  1620  and 
1630,  under  the  titles  Englische  Comodien  imd  Tragodien 
and  Liebeskampff  oder  cinder  Theil  der  Englischen  Comodien 
vnd  Tragodien}- 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  largely  responsible  for  the  fact 

that  the  initiative  of  the  English  actors  met  with  so  little 

encouragement.     An  immediate  influence  of  their  art  on  the 

German  drama  is  only  to  be  found  in  three  authors,  Landgraf 

Moriz  von  Hessen,  Herzog  Heinrich  Julius  von  Braunschweig 

— at  both  of  whose  Courts   English  actors  were  maintained 

from    1592    on — and   Jakob  Ayrer,   a  notary  of  Niirnberg. 

Landgraf     Landgraf  Moriz   of  Hesse  (1572-1632)  is  credited  with  a 

Hesse  V°n     number  of  original  plays,  but  none  has  been  preserved ;   a 

1572-1632.     dozen  plays  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  (1564-1613),  however, 

Duke  were  published  in  1593  and  I594-2     Duke  Heinrich  Julius 

TuUusof       stands   completely  under  the  influence  of  his  players;    his 

Brunswick,   dramas    are   full   of  the   horrors    which    the  English    actors 

1564-1613.    delighted  in ;  indeed,  the  tragedies  Titus  Andronicus  and  Von 

einem    vngerathenen    Sohn    exceed   in    this    respect   anything 

to  be  found  in  the  collections  of  Englische  Comodien  und 

Tragodien,       Music   and    dances   form  a   large  part  of  the 

entertainment,    and   the    clown   retains   a  name  of  English 

origin,  "  Johan  Bouset."     The  humorous  interludes  are  more 

refined  than  those  in  the  Englischen  Comodien^  but  not  very 

original ;  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  usually  creates  his  humorous 

effects  by  making  the   clown    speak   "  Plattdeutsch."      The 

construction    of  the   plays   is   only   a   helpless   imitation   of 

their   models ;    their    subjects — and   the    Duke,    it    may   be 

noted,  shows  a  preference  for  "  gallant "  themes — are  rarely 

chosen  with  a  view  to  their  suitability  for  dramatic  treatment. 

1  Die  Schauspiele  der  englischen  Komodianten,  ed.  W.  Creizenach  (D.N.L., 
23  [1889]) ;  another  selection  is  edited  by  J.  Tittmann  in  Deutsche  Dichter  des 
16.  Jahrh.,  13,  Leipzig,  1880. 

2  Ed.  W.  L.  Holland  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  36).  1855 ;  selections  by  J.  Tittmann 
in  Deutsche  Dichter  des  16.  Jahrh.,  14,  Leipzig,  1880. 


CH.  v.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      2OI 

The  best  side  of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick's  work  is  his  skill 
in  characterising  his  personages;  Vincentius  Ladislaus,  for 
instance,  in  the  play  of  that  name,  is  an  excellent  specimen 
of  the  favourite  Renaissance  type,  the  boasting  soldier,  re- 
garded in  the  light  of  grotesque  caricature.  But  Heinrich 
Julius  is,  after  all,  almost  as  far  as  Hans  Sachs  from  a  true 
understanding  of  the  nature  of  the  drama  and  of  dramatic 
construction. 

A  much  more  important  dramatist  is  Jakob  Ayrer  (died  Jakob 
1605),  in  whose  seventy  odd  pieces — sixty-six  were  published  Ayrer,  died 
in   1618  under  the  title  Opus  Thaatricum^—an  attempt  is   l6°S< 
made  to  ingraft  on  the  indigenous  drama  of  Hans  Sachs  the 
art  of  the  "Englischen  Comodianten,"  with  which,  since  1593, 
the  citizens   of  Niirnberg  had   had  repeated   opportunity  of 
making   themselves    acquainted.       In    the    essentials    of    his 
literary  art,  Ayrer  is  Sachs's  successor :  he  adopts  the  rhymed 
couplets   of  his   master;   he  employs  the    same    broad,    un- 
dramatic    method    of  unrolling   his    story,   and   even   in   his 
choice  of  themes  he  follows  to  a  large  extent  Sachs's  example. 
But  he  is  more  ambitious,  his  serious  dramas  being  invariably 
longer,  and  he  shows  a  preference  for  subjects  which  can  be 
extended  over  whole  cycles  of  plays.     Livy's  Romische  Historien 
der  Stadt  Rom,  from  Romulus  to  Tarquinius  Superbus  are  for 
instance,  the  theme  of  a  cycle  of  five  pieces  ;  the  Comedid von 
Valentino  vnd   Vrso  is  divided  into  four  plays,   Die   Schone 
Melusina  into  two,  while  the  Heldenbuch  is  spread  over  three 
long  dramas—  Vom  Hueg  Diterichen,  Von  dem  Keiser  Ottnit 
and  Vom  Wolff  Dieterichen.      What  Ayrer  learned   from  his 
English  models,  on  the  other  hand,  was  mainly  of  a  technical 
nature.     He  had  a  sharper  eye  for  stage  effects  than  Hans 
Sachs;    he  borrowed  from  the  "Comodianten"  their  sensa- 
tionalism ;  like  them,  he  made  the  most  of  scenes  of  blood- 
shed and  murder,  and  in  his  later  dramas,  at  least,  he  adopted 
the  improvements  of  the  stage  introduced  by  the  English 
guests.      The  most  satisfactory  of  Ayrer's  longer  pieces  are 
the  Comedia  von  der  schonen  Phoenicia  and  the  Comedia  von  der 
schonen  Sidea,  both  of  which  were  probably  written  after  1600 
The  plot  of  the  latter,   it  is  worth  noting,   bears   a   strong 
resemblance   to  Shakespeare's    Tempest,  a  fact  which  would 


2O2     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

seem  to  imply  that  both  pieces  had  the  same  source.  The 
comic  element  is  less  genuine  and  spontaneous  in  Ayrer's 
plays  than  in  the  Fastnachtsspiele  of  Hans  Sachs ;  he  intro- 
duced clowns  on  the  English  model,  but  usually  made  them 
personages  of  the  play,  not  merely  jesters  whose  duty  it  was 
to  entertain  the  audience  between  the  acts. 

Ayrer's  The  most  interesting  and  original  of  Ayrer's  dramatic  works 

^'"S;,  are  not  the  longer  dramas,  or  even  the  "  Fastnachtsspiele," 
but  his  "Singspiele."  Although  not  perhaps  the  actual  in- 
ventor of  the  German  "  Singspiel,"  Ayrer  was  the  first  to 
make  it  a  popular  form  of  dramatic  art.  The  themes  of 
these  plays  are  the  same  humorous  anecdotes  which  did 
service  for  the  Niirnberg  "  Fastnachtsspiele,"  with  the  differ- 
ence that  the  dialogue  is  here  interspersed  with  songs  set  to 
popular  melodies. 

Ayrer  was  on  the  right  road  towards  the  realisation  of  a 
German  national  drama.  His  work  shows  an  unquestionable 
advance  upon  that  of  his  predecessor,  Hans  Sachs  —  an 
advance,  not  in  dramatic  construction  or  characterisation, 
but  in  the  practical  quality  of  stage-effectiveness.  But  his 
talent  was  not  strong  enough  to  give  the  drama  a  literary 
stamp.  His  plays  did  not — any  more  than  those  of  the 
wandering  actors  whose  repertory  he  imitated — rise  above  the 
level  of  ephemeral  productions  intended  to  amuse  the  public 
of  his  day. 


203 


CHAPTER     VI. 

THE  RENAISSANCE. 

THE  Renaissance,  which  spread  from  Italy  to  France  in  the 
sixteenth  century  and  attained  its  maturity  in  the  great  century 
of  Louis  XIV.,  was  essentially  a  Latin  movement ;  it  is  the 
supreme  expression  of  the  Latin  spirit  in  art  and  literature. 
But  it  was  too  momentous  an  upheaval  in  the  intellectual  life 
of  Europe  to  remain  restricted  to  the  Latin  races,  and,  sooner 
or  later,  it  spread  to  Germanic  and  Slavonic  lands.  Here, 
however,  that  inner  harmony  between  the  spirit  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  the  national  temperament,  which  existed  in  Italy, 
in  France,  and  in  Spain,  was  absent,  and,  in  consequence,  it 
remained  in  the  north  of  Europe — even  in  Sweden,  where  it 
found  most  favourable  soil — essentially  a  foreign  movement. 
From  it,  however,  the  non-Latin  races  obtained  their  models  of 
literary  form  and  style.  In  Germany,  the  Renaissance  cannot  The  Re- 
be  said  to  have  set  in  before  the  first  years  of  the  seventeenth  pa^sanc 

«•  •         •  .in  Ger- 

century,  and  what  good  effects  it  might  have  had  were,  in  many. 

great  measure,  thwarted  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Thus  for 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  German  people  as  a  whole  this 
movement  had,  and  could  have,  but  little  importance,  and 
the  lessons  which  German  poetry  might  have  learned  from  it 
had  practically  all  to  be  learned  over  again  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  humanists  were  naturally  the  pioneers  of  the  Renais- 
sance in  Germany ;  they  were  the  true  cosmopolites  in  the  age 
of  the  Reformation,  and,  through  their  activity,  the  channels 
between  Germany  and  Italy  were  kept  open.  We  have 
already  seen  how  they  had  assisted  the  spread  of  Romance 
literature  north  of  the  Alps,  and  how  under  their  stimulus 


2O4     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Paul 

Schede, 

1539-1602. 


J.  W. 

Zincgref, 
1591-1635. 


G.  R. 

Weckher- 
lin,  1584- 
1653. 


Latin,  Italian,  and  French  works  were  translated.  These  trans- 
lations formed  the  groundwork  for  the  German  Renaissance. 
No  town  has  a  better  claim  to  be  regarded  as  the  birthplace 
of  the  new  movement  than  Heidelberg ;  here,  in  this  focus  of 
humanistic  activity,  the  early  Latin  comedies  of  Wimpfeling 
and  Reuchlin  had  been  produced ;  here  Konrad  Celtes  had 
founded  his  Latin  society,  the  "Sodalitas  litteraria  Rhenana"; 
and  here,  too,  stands  the  noblest  monument  of  Renaissance 
art  that  Germany  possesses,  the  Castle  of  Heidelberg. 

In  1586  the  learned  Paul  Schede,  or,  to  call  him  by  his 
Latin  name,  Paulus  Melissus  (1539-1602),  settled  as  librarian 
in  Heidelberg.  Fourteen  years  earlier,  Schede  had  published 
a  translation  of  the  Psalms  on  the  model  of  Clement  Marot,1 
and  had  thus  opened  up  the  channel  through  which  the  litera- 
ture of  the  French  Renaissance  found  its  way  into  Germany. 
Round  him,  in  the  last  years  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
gathered  a  group  of  scholarly  writers  who  looked  with  no 
unfriendly  eye  on  the  rise  of  a  vernacular  poetry.  The  most 
gifted  of  the  Heidelberg  poets,  and  their  spokesman,  was  a 
writer  of  the  younger  generation,  Julius  Wilhelm  Zincgref 
(1591-1635).  In  1624,  as  a  supplement  to  his  edition  of 
the  poems  of  Martin  Opitz,  Zincgref  published  an  Anhang 
underschiedlicher  aussgesuchter  Gedichten?  namely,  an  anthology 
of  verse  by  members  of  the  Heidelberg  circle;  but  better 
than  any  of  the  poems  in  this  collection  are  two  stirring  war 
poems  of  Zincgref 's  own,  Vermanung  zur  Dapfferkeit  (1625) 
and  Soldaten  Lob  (1632).  His  most  popular  book  was 
his  Scharpfsinnige  kluge  Spriich  or  Apothegmata  (1626),  a 
collection  of  anecdotes  and  "  Spriiche "  which  reflect  a 
healthy  understanding  of  the  German  people.  Associated 
with  the  Heidelberg  group  of  poets  was  Georg  Rodolf 
Weckherlin,  who  was  born  in  Stuttgart  in  1584.  Like  so 
many  of  the  leading  thinkers  and  poets  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  Weckherlin  was  a  widely  travelled  man,  and  he  had 
lived  so  long  in  England  that  he  had  practically  become 
an  Englishman.  In  1644  he  was  appointed  "Secretary  for 
Foreign  Tongues "  to  the  English  Government,  a  position 
which  he  held  until  the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  no  less  a  poet  than  John  Milton. 

i  Ed.  M.  H.  Jellinek  (Neudrvcke,  144-148),  Halle,  1896. 
-  Neudrucke,  15,  Halle,  1879. 


CH.  VI.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     2O5 

He  died  in  London  in  1653.  Of  all  the  pioneers  of  the 
German  Renaissance,  Weckherlin  had  the  clearest  aims ;  he 
saw  what  the  Renaissance  had  meant  for  France  and  England, 
and  he  set  about  the  task  of  introducing  it  in  his  own  land. 
He  was,  for  instance,  the  first  German  poet,  or  one  of  the 
first,  to  write  Sonnets  and  Alexandrines.  From  his  Oden  und 
Gesdnge  (1618-19),  with  their  Horatian  grace  and  rhythm, 
dates  the  new  era  in  German  poetry.  He  was  not  only,  as 
he  himself  insisted  in  the  preface  to  his  collected  Gaistliche 
und  Weltliche  Gedichte  (I64I)1  a  forerunner  of  Opitz,  —  a 
fact  which  the  later  members  of  Opitz's  school  refused  to 
acknowledge — but  he  had  also  a  far  more  genuine  feeling  for 
poetry  than  the  majority  of  them. 

Small  as  was  the  little  band  of  pioneers  in  Heidelberg,  their 
work  had  something  of  the  buoyant  freshness  of  the  early 
Renaissance  in  Italy  and  France.  They  are  too  insignificant 
to  be  compared  with  the  French  "Pleiade,"  but  the  posi- 
tion they  occupy  in  literary  history  is  analogous  to  that  of 
the  French  poets.  And  the  Messiah  whom  they  hoped  Martin 
for  was  not  long  in  coming.  On  the  iyth  of  June  1619,  °pltfj6 
Martin  Opitz,  a  young  Silesian  who  had  been  born  in 
Bunzlau  in  the  end  of  1597,  matriculated  as  a  student  of 
the  University.  Even  before  he  came  to  Heidelberg,  Opitz 
had  discussed,  in  a  Latin  essay,  Aristarchus,  sive  de  contemptu  Aris- 
linguae  Teutonicae  (1617),  how  German  poetry  might  be  re- 
vived,  and  had  exercised  himself  in  what  to  the  whole  seven- 
teenth century  was  a  most  vital  form  of  poetic  composition, 
the  flattery  of  those  in  high  places.  His  stay  in  Heidel- 
berg was  short,  but  its  effects  are  noticeable  in  the  verses  he 
wrote  at  this  time,  which  show  the  influence  of  Zincgref.  To 
avoid  the  war  and  the  plague,  Opitz  fled  in  1620  to  Holland, 
where  he  discovered  his  ideal  poet  in  the  person  of  the 
Dutch  scholar,  Daniel  Heinsius.  In  1621  he  was  again  at 
home  in  Silesia,  but,  a  few  months  later,  accepted  a  pro- 
fessorship in  the  gymnasium  of  Weissenburg  (Karlsburg)  in 
Transylvania.  Here  he  devoted  his  leisure  to  an  ambitious 
work  on  the  antiquities  of  Transylvania,  which  was  not 
completed,  but  the  materials  collected  for  it  were  utilised 

1  Ed.  H.  Fischer  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  199,  200),  1894-95  •  a  selection  by  K. 
Goedeke  in  Deutsche  Dichler  des  17.  Jahrh.,  5,  Leipzig,  1873.  Cp.  Allg. 
deutsche  Biographic,  41  (1896),  375  ff. 


206      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 


Zlatna, 
1623. 


Lob  des 
Krieges- 
gottes, 
1628. 


Trost 

Gedichte, 

1633- 


poetically  in  the  epic  Zlatna,  oder  von  Rhue  des  Gemiites  (1623). 
In  1625,  we  find  Opitz  in  Vienna,  where  his  poetic  fame  had 
preceded  him ;  he  was  solemnly  crowned  with  laurel  by  the 
Emperor  Ferdinand  II.,  and,  in  1628,  ennobled  under  the 
title  Opitz  von  Boberfeld.  The  patron  who  had  been  instru- 
mental in  obtaining  for  Opitz  the  second  of  these  honours 
was  no  other  than  the  bitter  enemy  of  Protestantism,  Graf 
Hannibal  von  Dohna,  whose  attempts  to  catholicise  Silesia 
with  the  sword  have  made  him  one  of  the  notorious  figures  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Opitz  became  his  secretary,  and  wrote 
for  him  the  Lob  des  Kriegesgottes  (1628),  besides  translating  a 
Latin  work  by  the  Jesuit,  M.  Becanus,  against  the  Reforma- 
tion. Dohna  also  procured  Opitz  the  means  for  a  journey  to 
Paris,  where  the  poet  made  the  acquaintance  of  Hugo  Grotius. 
When,  in  1632,  Dohna  was  compelled  to  flee  from  Breslau, 
Opitz  found  it  politic  to  seek  a  new  patron,  and  turned  to 
the  son  of  the  Danish  king,  Prince  Ulrich  of  Holstein,  to 
whom  he  dedicated  his  best  work,  the  Trost  Gedichte  in 
Widenvertigkeit  des  Kriegs  (1633),  which  had  been  written 
some  twelve  years  before  in  Jutland.  The  former  Secretary  of 
Graf  Dohna  now  made  no  concealment  of  his  sympathies  in 
the  religious  struggle  of  the  time;  the  spirit  of  these  Trost- 
gedichte  is  undisguisedly  Protestant.  The  form  of  the  work  is 
that  of  an  epic  in  four  books.  "  Ich  wil,"  he  says — 

1 '  Ich  wil  die  Pierinnen, 

Die  nie  nach  teutscher  Art  noch  haben  reden  konnen, 
Sampt  ihrem  Helicon  mit  dieser  meiner  Hand 
Versetzen  biss  hieher  in  unser  Vatterland. 
Es  wird  inkunfftig  noch  die  Balm,  so  ich  gebrochen, 
Der,  so  geschickter  ist,  nach  mir  zu  bessern  suchen."  1 

His  next  step  was  to  win  by  means  of  a  personal  eulogy 
the  ear  of  King  Wladislaus  of  Poland.  In  the  latter's  service, 
he  settled  in  Danzig,  where  he  returned  to  his  antiquarian 
studies,  editing,  besides  other  work,  the  Annolied.  In  1639, 
while  giving  alms  to  a  beggar  in  the  street,  he  was  infected 
with  the  plague,  and  within  three  days  was  dead. 

The    collection    of  Opitz's   Deutsche   Poemata 2    contains, 

1  H.  Oesterley's  edition  of  Opitz  (D. N.L.,  27),  271. 

2  Selections  ed.  byj.  Tittmann  in  Deutsche  Dichterdes  17.  Jahrh.,  i,  Leipzig, 
1869,  and  by  H.  Oesterley  in  D.N.L.,  27  [1889].      Cp.  on  Opitz   H.  Palm, 
Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  der  deutsclien  Literatur  des  16.  ttnd  17.  Jahrfi.,  Breslau, 
1877,  129  ff. 


CH.  VI.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     207 

besides  the  poems  that   have  already  been   mentioned,  ver- 
sions of  the  Psalms,  of  some  Prophets,  and  "  Lobgesange  "  on 
Christ's  birth  and  passion.       As  a  contribution  to  dramatic 
literature,  he  translated  Seneca's   Trojanerinnen    (1625)   and  Transla- 
Sophocles'  Antigone  (1636);    he  also  made  the  version   of  senecaand 
Rinuccini's  mythological  opera  Dafne,  which,  with  Heinrich  Sophocles. 
Schiitz's  music,  was  the  first  Italian   opera  to  be  performed 
in  Germany  (1627).     Finally,  with  translations  of  Barclay's 
political    novel,  Argents    (1626),  and  of  Sir    Philip   Sidney's 
Arcadia  (1629),  he  contributed  his  share  to  the  development 
of  German  fiction.      With  the  latter  work,  the  doors  were 
thrown  open  to  the  pastoral  poetry  of  the  Renaissance ;  and, 
in  1630,  Opitz  followed  up  his  translations  with  an  original 
Schafferey  von  der  Nimfen  Hercine,  which  is  partly  in  prose  Die  Nimfe 
and  partly  in  verse.     The  scene  of  this  interesting  adaptation 
of  the   Italian   pastoral  to  the  scenery  and  fairy-lore  of  the 
North  is  laid  in  the  Riesengebirge. 

By  no  canon  of  criticism  can  Opitz's  poetry  be  given  a  high 
place  in  literary  history  :  in  order,  however,  to  appreciate  Opitz 
fairly,  we  must  view  him,  not  from  a  modern  standpoint,  but 
from  that  of  his  own  century.  A  writer  who,  for  a  hundred 
years,  was  accepted  by  his  countrymen  as  their  representative 
poet,  must  have  some  genius.  The  bulk  of  his  verse  was 
written,  it  is  true,  according  to  mechanical  rules,  but  it  is  not 
all  uninspired :  some  of  it  will  even  bear  comparison  with 
that  of  such  genuine  poets  as  Dach  and  Fleming.  He  has 
been  called  "the  father  of  German  poetry,"  and  not  unjustly, 
for  he  was  first  to  carry  into  practice  those  principles  of  form 
and  style  without  which  poetry  would  not  have  reached  the 
classical  perfection  of  the  later  eighteenth  century. 

Like   the    pioneers    of   the    Renaissance    in    other   lands,   Das  Buck 
Opitz  led   the  way   not   only   by   practice    but   by  precept.  %"£fen 
The    Buck    von    der    deutschen    Poeterey    (I624),1    to   which  Poetcrcy, 
his  Aristarchus  had  been  a  preliminary  study,  is  the  most 
important   German  book  of  the  seventeenth   century.     Not 
that    this    ars   poetica    of    Opitz's    was    any    more    original 
than    his   poetry;    but    it  was    the   right  book  at  the  right 
moment,  and,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years — until  the  ap- 

1  Neudrucke,  i,  2nd  ed.,  Halle,  1882 ;  also  edited  together  with  the  Aris- 
tarchus by  G.  Witkowski,  Leipzig,  1888.  Cp.  K.  Borinski,  Die  Pottik  der 
Renaissance,  Berlin,  1886,  56  ft'. 


208      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 

pearance  of  Gottsched's  Critische  Dicktkunst — it  remained  the 
accepted  literary  canon  of  German  poetry.  No  work  could  be 
more  of  a  compilation  than  the  Buck  von  der  deutschen  Poeterey: 
in  almost  every  sentence  the  author  betrays  his  indebtedness 
to  earlier  theorists,  to  Horace,  Scaliger,  Ronsard,  the  French 
"  Pleiade,"  and  the  Dutch  poet  Heinsius — and  even  in  Ger- 
many itself  Opitz  was  not  without  forerunners.  He  borrowed, 
for  instance,  from  a  Sinnreiches  poetisches  Biichlein  (1616)  by 
Ernst  Schwabe  von  der  Heyde,  a  writer  who  stood  in  touch 
with  the  older  Heidelberg  circle,  but  as  the  Biichlein  is 
lost,  it  is  not  known  to  what  extent.1  Original  or  not,  how- 
ever, the  Buck  von  der  deutschen  Poeterey  contained  many 
healthy  lessons  for  the  literature  of  its  day :  it  set  up  in  place 
of  the  meaningless  syllable-counting  which  had  come  down 
from  the  Meistersingers,  genuine  principles  of  versification  ;  it 
combated  the  use  and  abuse  of  Latin  words  in  the  language, 
and  insisted  upon  the  creation  of  one  normal  High  German 
form  of  literary  speech.  The  different  species  of  poetical 
composition  are  enumerated  and  described,  while  the  art  of 
poetry  as  a  whole  is  regarded  as  an  imitation  of  nature  : — 

"  Man  soil  auch  wissen,  das  die  gantze  Poeterey  im  nachaffen 
der  Natur  bestehe,  vnd  die  dinge  nicht  so  sehr  beschreibe  wie  sie 
sein,  als  wie  sie  etwan  sein  kondten  oder  solten.  Es  sehen  aber 
die  menschen  nicht  alleine  die  sachen  gerne,  welche  an  sich  selber 
eine  ergetzung  haben  .  .  .  sondern  sie  horen  auch  die  dinge  mit 
lust  erzehlen,  welche  sie  doch  zue  sehen  nicht  begehren.  .  .  . 
Dienet  also  dieses  alles  zue  vberredung  vnd  vnterricht  auch  erget- 
zung der  Leute  ;  welches  der  Poeterey  vornemster  zweck  1st."  2 

But  Opitz  also  fell  into  errors  which  none  of  the  theorists 
of  the  Renaissance  was  able  to  avoid  :  he  set  up  as  the 
principles  of  poetic  art,  certain  rules  which  had  been 
arrived  at  by  analysing  the  masterpieces  of  poetry,  and 
required  no  more  of  a  poet  than  a  careful  observance 
of  these  rules.  Thus  the  scholar  well  versed  in  Latin  and 
Greek  literature,  and  consequently  familiar  with  the  best 
models,  was  the  true  poet,3  and  had  but  to  imitate  Homer, 
Virgil,  or  Horace  to  be  able  himself  to  rival  them. 

Opitz's  triumph,  however,  was  complete ;  not  Boileau  him- 

1  Cp.  P.  Schultze  in  Archivfiir  Liiteraturgeschichte,  14  (1886),  241  ft 

2  G.  Witkowski's  edition,  138  f. 
»  Ibid.,  147. 


CH.  VI.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     2Op 

self,  in  the  following  generation,  won  over  the  literary  (lite 
of  his  nation  so  completely  as  Opitz  with  his  Buck  von  der 
deutschen  Poeterey.  Single-handed,  he  inaugurated  a  literary 
revolution  such  as  no  German  before  or  after  him  achieved ; 
he  was  the  greatest  innovator  in  the  history  of  German 
letters.  The  literature  of  his  country,  such  as  it  was  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  was  brought  by  him  under  the 
sway  of  the  Latin  Renaissance. 

The  principal  agencies  for  the  dissemination  of  Opitz's 
reforms  were  the  numerous  literary  societies  which  sprang 
up  in  the  first  half  of  the  century.  They,  too,  were  a 
result  of  the  Latin  Renaissance,  being  modelled  on  the 
Florentine  "  Accademia  della  Crusca  "  or  "  Bran  "  Academy, 
which  received  its  name  on  the  fantastic  ground  that  it  was 
formed  to  purify  the  Italian  language  from  barbarisms,  as 
flour  is  purified  from  bran.  The  first  of  these  German 
societies,  the  "  Fruchtbringende  Gesellschaft,"  or,  as  it  was  The 
called  later  on,  "die  Gesellschaft  des  Palmenordens," 1  was  !'?" 

„     ,    .  .  ...  ,         ,  .  /-  T»  •  bringende 

called  into  existence  in  1617,  under  the  auspices  of  Prince  Geseii- 

Ludwig    of   Anhalt.       Its    childishly    fantastic    organisation,   schaft," 
...  .  .....  ,*  .„   °  .  founded 

which  seems  incompatible  with  serious  or  scientific  aims,  was   !6i7. 

also  taken  over  from  the  Florentine  model.  Each  of  the 
members  of  the  Italian  Academy  assumed  a  name  associated 
with  the  business  of  grinding  or  baking,  and,  in  the  same 
way,  the  members  of  the  "  Fruchtbringende  Gesellschaft " 
assumed  names  which  stood  in  some  fanciful  connection  with 
the  "  fructifying "  object  of  the  society :  Prince  Ludwig,  for 
instance,  was  "der  Ernahrende";  others  were  "  der  Helffende," 
"der  Unverdrossene,"  "der  Grade,"  "der  Wohlriechende," 
and  so  on,  and  each  member  was  supplied  with  a  coat  of 
arms  corresponding  to  his  assumed  title.  The  arms  of  the 
society  consisted  of  a  cocoanut  palm  with  the  motto,  "Alles 
zu  Nutzen."  Under  this  playful  guise,  the  "  Fruchtbringende 
Gesellschaft "  set  about  purifying  and  ennobling  the  "  hoch- 
teutsche  Sprache."  Insignificant  as  were  the  scholarly  results 
of  its  activity,  it  must  at  least  be  said  to  the  credit  of  the 
"  Palmenorden "  that  one  of  its  members,  Justus  Georg 
Schottelius  ("der  Suchende,"  1612-76),  was  the  author  of 
the  best  grammatical  work  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Ausfiihrliche  Arbeit  von  der  teutschen  Haubt  Sprache  (1663). 

1  F.  W.  Barthold,  Die  frucktbringende  Gesellschaft)  Berlin,  1848. 
O 


2IO     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [FT.  III. 


Other 
societies 


"Der 

gekronte 

Blumen- 

orden," 

founded 

1644. 

G.  P.  Hars- 
dorffer, 
1607-58. 


The 
Konigs- 
berg  poets. 


Societies  similar  to  the  "  Palmenorden "  sprang  up,  one 
in  Strassburg,  another  in  Hamburg,  the  latter  founded  by 
Philipp  von  Zesen  (1619-89),  who  exceeded  all  bounds  in 
his  naive  attempt  to  Germanise  foreign  words  on  the  basis 
of  impossible  etymologies :  he  even  went  so  far  as  to  invent 
German  equivalents  for  the  proper  names  of  antiquity.  It  was 
not  long,  however,  before  Zesen's  "  teutschgesinnte  Genossen- 
schaft " — the  members  of  which  took  the  names  of  flowers — 
found  a  rival  in  the  "  Elbschwanenorden "  of  the  Hamburg 
laureate,  Johann  Rist.  The  most  famous  of  all  these 
societies  was  "  Der  gekronte  Blumenorden,"  of  Niirnberg,  or 
"die  Gesellschaft  der  Schafer  an  der  Pegnitz,"  which  was 
founded  in  1644  by  Georg  Philipp  Harsdorffer  (1607-58) 
and  Johann  Klaj  or  Clajus  (1616-56).  The  "Pegnitz  Shep- 
herds "  devoted  more  attention  to  literature  than  the  "  Pal- 
menorden" had  done.  Harsdorffer,1  himself  a  graduate  of 
the  older  society,  is  an  example  of  the  absurdity  to  which 
the  entire  movement  led.  He  is  credited  with  no  less  than 
forty-seven  volumes  of  poetry,  of  which  the  most  famous  is 
the  Poetische  Trickier,  die  Teutsche  Dicht-  und  Reimkunst,  ohne 
Behuf  der  lateinischen  Sprache^  in  seeks  Stunden  einzugiessen,  or 
more  shortly,  Der  Niirnberger  Trickier  (1647-53).  This  work 
is  a  kind  of  ars  poetica,  which,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
title,  carries  the  principles  of  Opitz,  in  all  seriousness,  to 
absurdity.  Another  work  of  Harsdorffer's,  Frauenzimmer 
Gesprech-Spiele  (1641-49),  an  encyclopedia  for  ladies  in 
dialogue-form,  was  also  a  widely  read  book  in  its  day.  His 
partner,  Klaj,  who  was  a  pastor,  attempted  to  reform  the 
Passion  Plays  on  Opitzian  lines,  but  with  still  more  ridiculous 
results.  The  best  that  can  be  said  of  these  literary  societies 
is  that  they  created  an  interest  among  the  upper  classes 
for  German  poetry.  After  all,  they  were  symptoms  of  literary 
impotence,  and  not,  like  the  equally  fantastic  "Gelehrten- 
republik"  of  Klopstock  in  the  next  century,  an  exuberance 
of  literary  strength. 

In  Konigsberg,  a  group  of  poets,  who  endeavoured  to  put 
Opitz's  reforms  into  practice,  occupy  a  more  prominent  place 
in  the  literature  of  the  century  than  the  "  Pegnitz  Shepherds  " ; 

1  Cp.  Festschrift  »ur  ztp-jdhrigen  Jubelfeier  des  Pegnesischen  Blumenordens, 
Nurnberg,  1894  (contains  a  monograph  on  Harsdorffer  by  T.  Bischoff).  Cp. 
K.  Borinski,  I.e.,  181  if. 


CH.  VI.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     211 

with  Opitz,  the  vital  movement  in  German  literature  had 
clearly  passed  to  the  north.  The  leading  poet — we  might 
say  the  only  poet — of  this  circle  was  Simon  Dach  (I605-59),1  Simon 
a  native  of  Memel.  Dach's  life  was  in  itself  not  more  of  a  I^5ch> 
struggle  than  the  lives  of  others  among  his  contemporaries, 
but  to  his  yielding,  unenergetic  character  it  seemed  one  long 
tragedy.  Death  and  resignation  are  the  constant  themes  of 
his  religious  poetry,  and  even  in  the  "  Tanzlieder "  and 
"  Hochzeitsgedichte,"  the  dominant  tone  is  elegiac.  But 
Dach  had  the  true  lyric  inspiration ;  his  feeling  for  rhythm 
and  metre  stood  him  in  better  stead  than  any  theories. 
The  greater  number  of  his  poems  —  he  was  Professor  of 
Poetry  in  Konigsberg  from  1639  on — were  written  to  order, 
to  celebrate  weddings,  deaths,  and  the  like,  but  they  do 
not  suffer  from  this  disadvantage.  His  finest  verses,  as 
those,  for  instance,  beginning  with  the  following  strophe,  were 
occasional : — 

"  Jetzt  schlaffen  Berg'  und  Felder 

Mil  Reiff  und  Schnee  verdeckt, 

Auch  haben  sich  die  Walder 

In  ihr  weiss  Kleid  versteckt ; 

Die  Strome  stehn  geschlossen 

Und  sind  in  stiller  Ruh, 

Die  lieblich  sonst  geflossen 

Mit  Lauffen  ab  und  zu  ; "  2 

and  the  well-known  poem,  Anke  von  Tharau,  which  Herder 
included  in  his  collection  of  Volkslieder,  was  written  for  the 
wedding  of  an  East  Prussian  pastor's  daughter. 

A  poet  of  a  very  different   stamp  was  the  Saxon,   Paul  P.  Fle- 
Fleming.3     While   Dach  was  resigned  and  melancholy,  the 
latter  was  full  of  vigour.     Fleming,  it  has  been  well  said, 
is  the  poet  of  life,  Dach  the  singer  of  death ;  Fleming  writes 
in  a  major-key,  Dach  in  a  minor  one.4     Born  at  Hartenstein 

1  Ed.  H.  Oesterley  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  130),  1876  ;  also  by  the  same  editor  in 
Deutsche  Dichter  des  17.  Jahrh.,  9,  Leipzig,  1876,  and  in  D.N.  L.(  30  [1883]. 
This  last-mentioned  volume  also  contains  specimens  of  the  lyrics  of  Dach  s 
Konigsberg  friends,  R.  Roberthin  (1600-48),  H.  Albert  (1604-51),  &c.,  also  of 
his  successor  in  the  Konigsberg  chair  of  poetry,  Johann  Roling  (1634-79).    Cp. 
Neudrucke,  44-48,  Halle,  1883-84. 

2  H.  Oesterley's  edition  (D.N.L.,  30),  129. 

3  Ed.  J.  M.  Lappenberg  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  73,  82,  83),  1863-65  ;  selections  by 
J.  Tittmann  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  17.  Jahrh.,  2),  Leipzig,  1870,  and  H.  Oester- 
ley in  D.N.L.,  28  [1885].     A  translation  of  Ausgewdhlte  latcinische  Gedichte 
von  P.  Fleming,,  by  C.  Kirchner,  Halle,  1901. 

4  H.  Oesterley,  I.e.,  10. 


212     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

in  1609,  Fleming's  life  was  full  of  adventure  and  strange 
experiences.  He  began  by  studying  medicine  in  Leipzig, 
but  soon  discovered  his  poetic  talent.  Had  it  not,  how- 
ever, been  for  the  influence  of  Opitz,  he  would  probably  have 
only  written  Latin  verses ;  as  it  is,  Latin  poems  make  up 
more  than  a  third  of  his  writings.  He  had  hardly  finished 
his  university  career  when  the  war  compelled  him  to  leave 
Leipzig ;  the  town  was  plundered  and  the  plague  broke 
out.  Fleming  took  the  opportunity  of  accompanying  his 
A.  Olea-  friend  Adam  Olearius  (1603-71)  on  a  journey  to  Russia  and 
nus,  1603-  persi^  The  journey  lasted  six  years  and  the  travellers  pene- 
trated into  the  unknown  East  as  far  as  Ispahan.  Olearius 
described  the  journey  in  his  Beschreibung  der  netven  Orien- 
talischen  Reise  (1647),*  while  Fleming  celebrated  the  dangers 
and  adventures  they  came  through,  in  verse.  Although 
Fleming  himself  was  little  influenced  by  the  Oriental  litera- 
ture for  which  Olearius  endeavoured  to  create  a  taste  by 
translations,  the  novelty  of  his  experiences  gave  a  piquant 
flavour  to  his  poetry.  After  his  return,  Fleming  resolved 
to  settle  in  Reval  as  a  physician.  He  went  to  Leyden 
to  study,  but  as  he  was  on  the  way  back,  he  died  suddenly 
in  Hamburg  on  the  2nd  of  April  1640.  His  Geist-  und 
Weltliche  Poemata  were  first  collected  and  published  after  his 
death. 

In  technical  respects,  Fleming  was  an  unconditional  follower 
of  his  master  Opitz,  and,  like  all  the  poets  of  Opitz's  school, 
he  relied  much  on  foreign  models.  Occasionally,  an  echo 
is  to  be  heard  in  his  verse  of  the  Volkslied  and  the  Minne- 
sang  —  that  parallelism  of  human  life  with  nature  which  is 
so  characteristic  of  the  German  lyric  —  but  it  is  only  for  a 
moment ;  he  always  returns  with  preference  to  the  more 
familiar  forms  and  imagery  of  classical  poetry.  Fleming 
remained  a  poet  of  the  Renaissance,  but  he  was  raised  above 
the  flock  of  Opitz's  disciples  by  the  fact  that  his  poems, 
although  clothed  in  artificial  forms,  always  spring  from  actual 
experiences  and  feelings.  Manly  and  sincere  by  nature, 
Fleming  was  also  not  the  poet  to  spend  his  life  in  the 
quest  for  liberal  patrons ;  and  on  his  deathbed  in  Ham- 
burg, showed  that  he  was  conscious  of  not  having  lived 
in  vain : — 

*  Cp.  D.N.L.,  28,  229  ff. 


CH.  VI.]      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      213 

"  Ich  war  an  Kunst  und  Gut  und  Stande  gross  und  reich, 
des  Gliickes  lieber  Sohn,  von  Eltern  guter  Ehren, 
frei,  meine,  kunte  mich  aus  meinen  Mitteln  nahren, 
mein  Schall  floh  liber  weit,  kein  Landsman  sang  mir  gleich, 

von  Reisen  hochgepreist,  fiir  keiner  Miihe  bleich, 
jung,  wachsam,  unbesorgt.     Man  wird  mich  nennen  horen, 
bis  dass  die  letzte  Glut  diss  Alles  wird  verstbren." x 

The  drama,  in  which  Opitz  was  aware  of  his  own  short-  J.  Rist, 
comings,  was  still  without  a  representative.  Johann  Rist  l6°7-67- 
(i6o7-67),2  the  founder  of  the  Hamburg  "Elbschwanenorden," 
and  a  lyric  poet  who,  with  more  concentration,  might  have 
rivalled  Dach  and  Fleming,  had,  it  is  true,  written  plays, 
but  they  were  hardly  in  accordance  with  Opitz's  standard  of 
good  taste.  The  dialogue,  for  instance,  was  in  prose,  and 
comic  episodes  were  introduced  in  which  the  peasants  spoke 
"  Plattdeutsch."  As  Rist's  dramatic  work  is  for  the  most  part 
lost,  we  are  unable  to  say  whether  he  wrote  much  or  little, 
but,  in  any  case,  his  plays  seem  to  have  been  more  akin  to 
the  Nurnberg  Fastnachtsspiel  than  to  the  drama  of  the  Latin 
Renaissance.  The  real  dramatist  who  filled  the  vacant  place 
in  the  literature  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  Gryphius. 

Andreas  Gryphius  3 — originally  Greif — was  born  at  Glogau,  A.  Gry- 
in  Silesia,  in  1616,  the  year  of  Shakespeare's  death,  and  he 
died  in  1664,  a  hundred  years  after  the  English  poet  was 
born.  Early  orphaned,  his  youth  was  an  unhappy  one,  but 
his  poetic  talent  overcame  all  obstacles,  and,  before  the  age 
of  seventeen,  he  had  written  an  epic  in  Latin  hexameters  on 
Herod  and  the  Slaughter  of  the  Innocents  (Herodis  furia  et 
Rachelis  lacrymte,  1634).  A  noble  patron,  Pfalzgraf  Georg 
von  Schonborn,  seems  to  have  provided  him  with  the  means 
of  studying  at  the  University  of  Leyden.  In  Holland 
he  spent  six  years,  studying  and  teaching ;  here  also  he 
became  familiar  with  the  dramas  of  the  leading  Dutch 
dramatists,  Hooft  and  Vondel.  A  journey  to  France  and 
Italy  followed,  in  the  course  of  which  he  wrote  a  Latin 
epic  on  the  Passion,  Olivetum  (1646),  which  he  solemnly  pre- 

1  H.  Oesterley's  edition  (D.N.L.,  28),  98. 

8  Dichtungen,  herausg.  von  K.  Goedeke  und  E.  Goetze  (Deutsche  Dichter 
des  17.  Jahrh.,  15),  Leipzig,  188=5. 

8  Ed.  H.  Palm  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  138,  162,  171),  1879-83,  also  a  selection  by 
the  same  editor  in  D.'N.L.,  29  [1883],  and  by  J.  Tittmann,  in  Deutsche  Dichter 
des  17.  Jahrh.,  4  and  14,  Leipzig,  1870-80.  Cp.  L.  G.  Wysocki,  Andreas  Gry- 
phius et  la  tragedie  alltmande  au  XVII  siecle,  Paris,  1893. 


214     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  ill. 


Son-  undt 
Feyrtags- 
Sonnete, 
1639. 


Kirchhoffs- 
Gedancken, 
1656. 


His 
tragedies. 


Cardenio 
vnd 
Celinde, 
ca.  1648. 


sented  to  the  Republic  of  Venice.  In  the  following  year, 
1647,  he  returned  to  Silesia,  married,  and  settled  down  to  a 
quiet  life;  in  1650  he  was  made  Syndic  of  the  principality  of 
Glogau,  a  position  which  he  held  until  his  death. 

Andreas  Gryphius  is  an  excellent  type  of  the  Germanic  poet, 
and,  under  more  favourable  conditions,  might  have  taken  a 
high  place  in  the  national  literature.  In  his  religious  lyric 
he  appears  as  an  earnest  thinker,  inclined  to  brood  over 
the  tragic  aspects  of  life.  The  Son-  undt  Feyrtags-Sonnete 
(1639),  written  in  Holland,  have  all  the  passionate  fervour 
of  Luther's  hymns,  and  show  what  a  serious  matter 
Protestantism  was  to  him.  The  spirit  of  these  lyrics  is 
wholly  German,  only  the  form  is  of  the  Renaissance ;  but 
just  in  that  form  Gryphius  shows  himself  a  master :  he 
handles  the  sonnet  with  as  much  ease  as  the  familiar  metre 
of  the  Volkslied.  In  the  later  Oden,  and  especially  in  the 
Thrdnen  iiber  das  Leiden  Jesu  Christi  (1652),  and  Kirchhoffs- 
Gedancken  (1656),  his  religious  earnestness  gives  place  to 
melancholy. 

It  was  only  natural  in  a  century  so  rich  in  religious 
poetry  as  the  seventeenth,  that  Gryphius  should  owe  his 
reputation  less  to  his  hymns  than  to  his  other  work.  As  a 
dramatist,  he  was  virtually  without  a  rival.  His  first  tragedy 
had  for  its  subject  the  Byzantine  Emperor  Leo  Armenius 
(1646,  published  1650);  and  it  was  followed  by  Catharina 
von  Georgien,  the  tragedy  of  a  Christian  martyr  in  Persia. 
In  Ermordete  Majestat ;  oder  Carolus  Stuardus,  Konig  von 
Gross-Britannien  (first  published  1657,  but  written  in  1649), 
Gryphius  had  the  courage  to  dramatise  an  event  that  had  only 
just  taken  place,  namely,  the  trial  and  execution  of  Charles  I. 
of  England.  He  was  fond  of  sanguinary  themes,  and  loved 
to  thrill  his  audience  with  the  terrors  of  the  supernatural : 
in  Carolus  Stuardus^  for  instance,  the  chorus,  which '  was 
introduced  in  accordance  with  the  dramatic  theories  of  the 
Renaissance,  is  made  up  of  the  murdered  kings  of  England, 
who  appear  as  ghosts.  The  most  characteristic  of  all 
his  tragedies,  however,  is  Cardenio  vnd  Celinde  (ca.  1648). 
The  choice  of  this  subject,  which  the  author  himself  feared 
was  almost  too  humble  for  the  purposes  of  tragedy,  points 
to  the  abiding  influence  of  the  "  Englischen  Comodianten." 
Like  so  many  of  the  pieces  in  the  repertories  of  these 


CH.  VI.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE. 

actors,  Cardenio  vnd  Celinde  is  based  upon  an  Italian  novel, 
but  Gryphius's  dramatisation  shows  very  modest  stagecraft 
compared  with  that  of  his  English  models.  Cardenio  is  a 
Spanish  student  of  Bologna,  who,  from  disappointed  love  for 
the  virtuous  Olympia,  resolves  to  murder  her  husband ;  he 
is  loved  by  Celinde,  who  determines  to  keep  him  faithful 
to  her  by  means  of  magic.  The  theme  of  the  drama  proper 
is  to  show  how,  by  the  interposition  of  supernatural  powers, 
Celinde  is  cured  of  her  passion  and  Cardenio  of  his  evil 
intentions.  Now  and  then,  there  is  a  touch  of  real  tragic 
poetry  in  this  first  German  "  biirgerliche  Schauspiel,"  but 
the  fact  that  at  least  three  of  the  five  "  Abhandelungen " 
or  acts  consist  merely  of  narrative  monologues,  shows  how 
rudimentary  was  the  poet's  idea  of  dramatic  construction. 
As  a  drama,  Cardenio  vnd  Celinde  is,  after  all,  little  in 
advance  of  the  work  of  Hans  Sachs.  From  the  tragedy  of 
the  Renaissance,  as  Gryphius  found  it  in  Vondel,  his  Dutch 
model,  he  had  gained  no  more  than  a  few  technical  hints 
and  a  taste  for  the  supernatural. 

Contrary  to  what  might  be  expected  of  so  sombre-minded  His 
a  poet,  Gryphius  is  to  be  seen  to  more  advantage  in  his  comedies- 
comedies  than  in  his  tragedies.  In  the  "  Schimpfspiel," 
Absurda  comica,  oder  Herr  Peter  Squentz,  and  in  its  com- 
panion "  Scherzspiel,"  Horribilicribrifax,  he  displays  a  fresh 
original  humour  which  is  in  strange  contrast  to  the 
melancholy  tone  of  the  Kirchhoffs-Gedancken.  These  plays, 
both  of  which  were  written  before  1650,  although  not 
published  until  long  after,  are  unquestionably  the  best 
German  dramas  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Herr  Peter 
Squentz  is  a  version  of  the  comic  episodes  in  the  Midsummer 
Nighfs  Dream  with  which  Gryphius  had  become  familiar 
either  through  performances  of  English  actors,  or,  what 
is  more  likely,  through  a  Dutch  version.  The  better  of 
the  plays  is  the  second,  which  was  probably  also  based  on 
an  earlier  model :  its  hero — a  bragging  soldier — was  a  favour- 
ite type  with  the  dramatists  of  the  Renaissance.  Gryphius 
appears  here  as  a  master  of  that  witty  caricature  which  was 
first  developed  by  the  Italians  in  their  commedia  delf  arte. 
It  is  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  both  these  comedies  that 
they  are  written  not  in  the  stilted  Alexandrines  of  the 
tragedies,  but  in  prose.  In  other  plays,  such  as  the 


2l6      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

"Gesangs-  und  Scherz-Spiele,"  Das  verliebte  Gespenst  and 
Die  geliebte  Dornrose  (1660),  adaptations  respectively  of  a 
French  and  Dutch  original,  the  lyric  element  predominates 
and  weakens  the  dramatic  effect.  On  the  whole,  Gryphius  is 
at  his  best  in  Horribilicribrifax ;  it  is  in  this  farce,  rather 
than  in  his  ambitious  tragedies,  that  he  takes  an  honourable 
place  in  the  history  of  the  German  drama. 


217 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RELIGIOUS  POETRY;  EPIGRAM  AND  SATIRE. 

ALTHOUGH  almost  all  the  poets  who  accepted  Opitz's  theories 
wrote  verses  on  religious  themes,  it  was  only  exceptionally, 
as  in  the  case  of  Fleming  and  Gryphius,  that  the  religious 
feeling  was  deep  or  genuine  enough  to  conceal  the  mechanism 
of  the  poet's  art.  The  most  gifted  religious  poet  of  Silesia  at 
this  time  had  little  sympathy  for  the  ideals  of  the  first  Silesian 
School,  and  held  aloof  from  Opitz  and  his  friends.  Johann 
Scheffler,  or,  to  give  him  the  name  by  which  he  is  best 
known,  Angelus  Silesius  (1624  -  77),  was  a  physician  in  Angelus 
Breslau,  who,  to  the  consternation  of  his  family  and  fellow-  Silesius, 
citizens,  went  over  in  1653  to  the  Catholic  faith,  and,  eight 
years  later,  became  a  priest.  His  recantation  of  Protestantism 
was  rooted  in  a  revival  of  that  mysticism  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  been  a  forerunner  of  the  Reformation  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  virile  common-sense  of  Luther's  Pro- 
testantism had  not  been  favourable  to  the  self-abnegating  spirit 
of  mysticism,  and  this  spirit  played  a  subordinate  part  in  the 
life  of  the  sixteenth  century.  But  as  soon  as  Lutheranism 
began  to  stiffen  into  a  system  of  dogmas,  mysticism  again 
came  into  favour.  In  1612  Jakob  Bdhme  (1575-1624),  a  j.  Bohme 
shoemaker  of  Gorlitz,  published  his  first  book,  Aurora,  oder  I5 
Morgenrothe  im  Aufgang,  which  preached  a  strange  mystic  phil- 
osophy, and  exerted  an  influence  which  had  not  spent  itself 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Bohme's  ideas  found 
an  enthusiastic  advocate  in  his  fellow-countryman,  Abraham 
von  Franckenberg  (1593-1652),  and  from  Franckenberg,  as 
well  as  directly  from  Bohme  and  Tauler,  Silesius  drew  his 
inspiration,  thus  becoming  unconsciously  the  first  messenger 
of  a  new  epoch  in  German  poetry.  The  writings  of  Silesius 


2l8      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Der 

Cherubi- 
nische 
Wanders- 

matin, 
1657- 


Friedrich 
von  Spec, 
1591-1635. 


consist  of  two  volumes  of  poetry,  both  published  in  1657, 
Heilige  Seelenlust,  oder  Geistliche  Hirten-Lieder  der  in  jhren 
Jesum  verliebten  Psyche  and  Geistreiche  Sinn-  und  Schlussreime, 
the  latter  in  its  second  edition  (1674)  known  as  Der  Cherubi- 
nische  Wander -smann.1  The  former  of  these  collections  is 
written  under  the  influence  of  the  pastoral  poetry  of  the 
Renaissance ;  Psyche,  the  soul,  is  a  shepherdess  who  sighs  for 
her  beloved  shepherd,  Jesus,  and  leaves  her  friends  and 
her  flock  to  follow  Him.  But  the  mystic  earnestness  and 
sincerity  of  Silesius  prevent  his  verse  from  degenerating 
into  the  triviality  of  the  religious  pastoral.  He  is  at  his 
best  in  the  theosophic  "Spriiche"  of  the  Cherubinische 
Wandersmann ;  with  wonderful  poetic  depth  and  that  clear 
vision  for  the  spiritual  relations  of  things  to  be  found  in 
all  mystic  poetry,  he  pours  out  the  yearning  of  his  soul  for 
union  with  God.  His  conception  of  the  universe  takes  the 
form  of  an  all-embracing  pantheism,  which  does  not  shrink 
from  such  startling  expression  as — 

"  Ich  weiss,  dass  ohne  mich  Gott  nicht  ein  Nu  kan  leben, 
Werd'  ich  zu  nicht,  Er  muss  von  Noth  den  Geist  autfgeben. 

Dass  Gott  so  seelig  ist  und  Lebet,  ohn  Verlangen, 
Hat  Er  so  wol  von  mir,  als  ich  von  Ihm  empfangen. 

Ich  bin  so  gross  als  Gott :  Er  ist  als  ich  so  klein  ; 
Er  kan  nicht  iiber  mich,  ich  unter  Ihm  nicht  seyn."2 

The  typical  representative  of  religious  pastoral  poetry  at 
this  time  was  an  older  poet  than  Silesius,  namely  the 
Rhinelander,  Friedrich  von  Spec  (1591-1635).  Although  a 
Catholic  and  a  Jesuit,  Spee  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of 
wider  sympathies  than  his  fellows.  He  did  his  utmost  to 
destroy  the  superstition  which  condemned  alleged  witches  to 
the  stake,  and,  indeed,  his  whole  life  was  embittered  by  the 
fact  that,  as  professor  in  Wiirzburg,  he  had  within  two  years 
to  prepare,  as  their  confessor,  more  than  two  hundred  of  these 
"witches"  for  their  fate.  He  died  of  fever  caught  in  the 
hospital  of  Treves. while  nursing  the  sick  and  wounded.  In 
the  year  before  his  death  he  collected  his  religious  poetry  for 

i  Ed.  G.  Ellinger  (Neudrvcke,  135-138),   Halle,  1895.     Cp.   E.  Wolff,  Das 
deutsche  Kirchenlied  des  16.  und  17.  Jahrh.  (D.N.L.,  31  [1894]),  471  ff. 
a  Book  i,  8-10  (G.  Ellinger's  edition,  15). 


CH.  VII.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     2IQ 

publication  under  the  title,  Trutz-Nachtigal,  oder  Geistlichs-  Trvtx- 
Poetisch  Lust-Waldlein  (I649).1  " Trutz-Nachtigal,"  says  the  JJfJJj^ 
poet  in  his  preface,  "  wird  diss  Biichlein  genandt,  weiln  es 
trutz  alien  Nachtigalen  suss,  vnd  lieblich  singet,  vnnd  zwar 
aufrichtig  Poetisch :  also  dass  es  sich  auch  wol  bey  sehr 
guten  Lateinischen  vnnd  anderen  Poeten  dorfft  horen  lassen." 
Spec's  poetry  has  little  of  the  poetic  mysticism  which 
makes  the  Cherubinische  Wandersmann  still  interesting  to  a 
modern  reader;  his  lyric  is  essentially  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  But  through  his  tasteless  confusion  of  Christianity 
and  antique  mythology  breathes  a  humane  religious  spirit 
which  is  at  least  sincere ;  and  verses  like  the  following,  from 
a  Liebgesang  der  Gesfons  Jesu,  reveal  an  appreciation  for 
nature  which  calls  to  mind  the  awakening  of  the  nature- 
sense  in  German  poetry  a  century  later : — 

"  Der  trube  winter  ist  fiirbey, 

Die  Kranich  widerkehren  ; 
Nun  reget  sich  der  Vogelschrey, 

Die  Nester  sich  vermehren  ; 
Laub  mit  gemach 

Nun  schleicht  an  tag  ; 
Die  blumlein  sich  nun  melden. 
Wie  Schlanglein  krumb 
Gehn  lachlend  umb 
Die  bachlein  kiihl  in  Walden. "  2 

Although  Spec  was  not  familiar  with  the  work  or  theories 
of  Opitz  when  he  wrote  his  own  poetry,  his  ars  poetica  was 
obviously  in    complete   accordance  with   the  Buck  -von   der 
deutschen  Poeterey  ;  he,  too,  independently  of  Opitz,  had  come 
under  the  stimulus  of  the  new  ideals  of  the  Renaissance.     A 
hardly  less  gifted  lyric  poet  than  Spee  was  another  Jesuit,  j.  Balde, 
Jakob  Balde  (1604-88),  Court  preacher  in  Munich,  but  Balde   l6°4-88. 
was  only  at  home  when  he  wrote  in  Latin ;  his  German  poems 
have  little  merit 

The  national  religious  lyric  in  these  centuries  was  a  pro- 
duct of  Protestantism.  .  Since  Luther,  there  had  been  no  lack  The 
of  evangelical  hymn-writers,  but  it  was  late  in  the  seventeenth  Protestant 

'    .    .  hymn. 

century  before  religious  poetry  reached  its  highest  develop- 
ment.    The  greatest  German  hymn-writer  was  Paul  Gerhardt 

1  Ed.  G.  Balke  (Deutsche  Dichter  des  17.  Jahrh.,  13),  Leipzig,  1879.     Cp.  E. 
Wolff,  I.e.,  225  ff. 

2  E.  Wolff,  l.c.,  252. 


22O     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

P.  Ger-  (I607-76).1  A  native  of  Grafenhainichen,  near  Bitterfeld,  Ger- 
^6o7l'6  hardt  studied  at  Wittenberg ;  he  was  then  for  a  time  Diakonus 
of  the  Church  of  St  Nicolai  in  Berlin,  but  being  unable  to  re- 
concile himself  to  the  efforts  made  by  the  Kurfiirst  of  Branden- 
burg to  reconcile  the  Lutheran  and  Reformed  Church,  he 
had,  in  consequence,  to  resign  his  charge.  He  spent  the  last 
seven  years  of  his  life  as  preacher  in  Liibben  on  the  Spree. 
Gerhardt  belonged  to  the  old  school  of  Protestant  preacher- 
poets,  of  whom  Luther  himself  was  the  model ;  that  is  to  say, 
he  was,  in  the  first  place,  a  Churchman  and  only  in  the  second 
a  poet.  Some  of  his  hymns  appeared  in  print  as  early  as 
1648,  but  the  first  collected  edition  was  that  of  1667,  which 
bore  the  title  Geistliche  Andachten.  There  is  nothing  that  sug- 
gests the  Renaissance  in  Gerhardt's  poetry ;  his  hymns  are 
what  Luther's  had  been,  Volkslieder.  The  artificial  graces  of 
Spec  and  the  mystic  spirituality  of  Silesius  are  alike  absent : 
he  is  content  to  express  in  the  simplest  language  the  unre- 
flecting optimism  of  the  German  Protestant  "  Volk."  Earnest 
religious  conviction  and  unwavering  faith  breathe  from  hymns 
like  Befiehl  du  deine  Wege ;  the  full-sounding  speech  of  the 
German  Bible,  again,  re-echoes  in  the  magnificent  hymn, 
based  on  the  Latin,  Salve,  caput  cruentatum  ("  O  sacred  Head, 
surrounded  By  crown  of  piercing  thorn  ! "),  by  Bernhard  of 
Clairvaux — 

"  O  Haupt  voll  Blut  und  Wunden, 

Voll  Schmerz  und  voller  Hohu  ! 

O  Haupt  zu  Spott  gebunden 

Mit  einer  Dornenkron  ! 

O  Haupt,  sonst  schon  gezieret 

Mit  hochster  Ehr  und  Zier, 

Itzt  aber  hoch  schimpfieret : 

Gegriisset  seyst  du  mir  !  " 

Still  another  and  more  peaceful  side  of  Gerhardt's  religious 
lyric  is  to  be  seen  in  a  poem  like — 

"  Nun  ruhen  alle  Walder, 
Vieh,  Menschen,  Stadt  und  Felder, 
Es  schlaft  die  ganze  Welt : 
Ihr  aber,  meine  Sinnen, 
Auf,  auf,  ihr  sollt  beginnen, 
Was  eurem  Schopfer  wolgefallt."  * 


1  Ed.  K.  Goede,ke  (Deutsche  Dichter,  12),  Leipzig,  1877 ;  also  in  Reclam's 
Universal-Bibliothek,  No.  1741-43,  Leipzig,  1884,  and  E.  Wolff,  I.e.,  127 ff. 
a  E.  Wolff,  I.e.,  135,  139. 


CH.  VII.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     221 

Gerhardt  was  not  a  pioneer  in  religious  song  as  Luther 
had  been,  but  his  poetic  gifts  were  finer  and  more  har- 
monious. His  verses  are  not  combative  or  defiant;  that 
rugged  independence  of  character  which  stamped  everything 
the  Reformer  wrote  is  not  to  be  found  in  them,  but  they 
flow  more  easily  than  did  the  strong  if  sometimes  unmusical 
lines  of  Luther.  And  Gerhardt  did  not  stand  alone.  The 
names  of  many  poet-preachers  in  this  age  might  be  cited, 
not  a  few  of  whom  wrote  hymns  which  were  at  once  accepted 
by  the  people — the  ultimate  test  of  such  poetry — as  the  ex- 
pression of  their  religious  feeling.  From  the  Reformation  to 
the  first  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  at  least,  the  purest 
expression  of  the  German  lyric  is  to  be  found  in  the  hymn. 

Satire,  the  most  virile  form  of  literature  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  plays  a  comparatively  small  role  in  the  seventeenth ; 
or  rather,  it  might  be  said  to  have  assumed  a  new  form 
made  popular  by  the  Renaissance,  that  of  the  Epigram. 
Friedrich  von  Logau,  Germany's  most  gifted  epigrammatist,  Friedrich 
was  one  of  those  neglected  geniuses  who  are  not  appreciated  v°nL°gau. 
at  their  full  worth  until  generations  after  they  are  dead; 
his  reputation  virtually  dates  from  1759,  when  Ramler  and 
Lessing  unearthed  and  published  his  epigrams.1  Born  at 
Brockut,  near  Nimptsch  in  Silesia,  in  1605,  Logau  studied 
jurisprudence  and  obtained  a  position  in  the  service  of  the 
Duke  of  Liegnitz.  In  1648  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  "  Fruchtbringende  Gesellschaft "  under  the  name  "  Der 
Verkleinernde,"  and  he  died  at  Liegnitz  in  1655.  In  1638 
he  published  the  first  sample  of  his  epigrams,  Erstes  Hundert 
Teutscher  Reimen-Sprilche  ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  year  before 
his  death  that  the  chief  collection  followed,  under  the  title, 
Salomons  von  Golaw  (an  obvious  anagram)  Deutscher.  Sinn- 
Getichte  Drey  Tausend  (i654).2  Not  all  of  these  three  thou- 
sand epigrams  and  Spriiche  were  original,  but  even  when 
borrowed  from  Latin  and  other  sources,  Logau  put  his 
own  stamp  upon  them  before  they  left  his  hands.  Their 
author  makes  the  impression  of  having  been  a  wise  observer 
of  his  time,  and  it  was  no  small  merit  to  see  things  clearly 

1  See  G.  E.  Lessing's  Samtliche  Schriften,  ed.  K.  Lachmann,  3rd  ed.  by  F. 
Muncker,  Stuttgart,  1886-1900,  7,  125  ff. 

2  Ed.  G.  Eitner  (Stuttg.  Litt.  Ver.,  113),  1872  ;  also  a  selection  by  the  same 
editor  in  Deutsche  Dichter  des  17.  Jakrh.,  3.  Leipzig.  1870,  and  by  H.  Oesterley 
inD.N.L.,28^885],  '35  & 


222      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 

in  the  age  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  After  the  endless  blood 
that  had  been  shed  over  the  rival  claims  of  religions,  Logau 
doubted  whether  Christ  would  find  credence  if  He  returned 
to  earth.  Opitz  he  praised  as  a  German  Virgil,  but  he  had 
no  faith  in  writing  poetry  by  rule,  and  held  aloof  from  the 
Opitzian  school  He  was  a  good  patriot,  and  ridiculed 
mercilessly  the  aping  of  French  customs  and  the  contempt 
for  the  German  language,  which,  a  hundred  years  later,  were 
still  the  butt  of  satire. 

"  Diener  tragen  in  gemein  ihrer  Herren  Lieverey  ; 
Soils  dann  seyn,  dass  Frankreich  Herr,  Deutschland  aber  Diener  sey  ? 
Freyes  Deutschland  scham  dich  doch  dieser  schnoden  Knechterey  ! " 

Or,  again : — 

"  Wer  nicht  Frantzosisch  kan, 
1st  kein  geriihmter  Mann  ; 
Drum  mussen  wir  verdammen, 
Von  denen  wir  entstammen, 
Bey  denen  Hertz  und  Mund 
Alleine  deutsch  gekunt." 

In  the  same  way,  a  favourite  theme  of  Logau's  satire  is  the 
"  alamodischen  "  (a  la  mode)  customs,  language,  and  dress  of 
the  higher  society  of  the  seventeenth  century  : — 

"  Alamode-Kleider,  Alamode-Sinnen ; 
Wie  sichs  wandelt  aussen,  wandelt  sichs  auch  innen."1 

By  nature  Logau  was  earnest  rather  than  brillant ;  he  avoided 
superficial  witticism,  and  meant  what  he  said  as  seriously  as 
the  most  bitter  satirist.  But  what  more  than  anything  else 
entitles  him  to  the  first  place  among  German  epigrammatists 
is  his  enormous  variety :  he  writes  three  thousand  epigrams 
without  leaving  the  impression  that  he  has  unnecessarily  re- 
peated himself,  or  ridden  any  one  type  of  epigram  to  death. 
On  the  whole,  he  was  one  of  the  sanest  and  manliest  figures 
in  the  literary  history  of  his  time. 

J.  Laurem.  Another  satirist  of  the  a  la  mode  was  Johann  Lauremberg 
berg,  1590-  (1590-1658),  a  native  of  Rostock,  who,  under  the  name 
"  Hans  Willmsen  L.  Rost,"  wrote  in  the  Plattdeutsch  dialect 
of  his  home,  Veer  Schertz  Gedichte,  in  Nedderdiidisch  gerimet 
(i652),2  which  were  so  popular  that  they  were  soon  trans- 
lated into  High  German.  Lauremberg  was  actuated  by 

1  H.  Oesterley's  edition,  162,  176,  190. 

a  Ed.  W.  Braune  (Neudrucke,  16,  17),  Halle,  1879. 


CH.  VII.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     223 

what  might  be  termed  a  patriotic  motive,  in  writing  in  Low 
German ;  the  language  in  which  Reinke  de  Vos  was  written, 
seemed  to  him  as  literary  as  the  High  German  dialect  which 
Opitz  and  his  friends  favoured.  This  Low  German  satirist 
possessed  a  kindliness  and  easy-going  Saxon  humour,  which 
suggest  a  comparison  with  the  tamer  if  more  polished 
Rabener  of  a  later  date.  In  any  case,  he  was  much  superior 
to  the  satirists  of  Opitz's  school,  of  whom  only  one,  the 
Low  German  pastor,  Joachim  Rachel  (1618-69),  's  worthy  j.  Rachel, 
of  mention.  Rachel,  originally  a  disciple  of  Lauremberg's,  l6l8'69- 
began  by  writing  under  his  influence  simple,  hearty  Volks- 
lieder  in  his  native  dialect ;  but  with  the  six  Satirischen 
Gedichte,  which  he  published  in  1664,  he  became  the  repre- 
sentative satirist  of  Opitz's  school.  He  was  not,  like  his  first 
master,  troubled  with  patriotic  considerations,  and  saw  shrewdly 
enough  that  High  German  was  the  sure  road  to  success. 

An  interesting  comparison  of  North  and  South  German, 
of  Protestant  and  Catholic,  is  afforded  by  two  remarkable 
preachers  of  the  seventeenth  century  —  Johann  Balthasar  j.  B. 
Schupp  or  Schuppius  (1610-61),  a  native  of  Giessen,  and 
Ulrich  Megerle,  better  known  as  Abraham  a  Santa  Clara 
(1644-1709),  the  name  he  assumed  as  monk.  Santa  Clara, 
who  was  born  near  Messkirch,  in  southern  Baden,  rose  to  be 
court-preacher  in  Vienna ;  Schupp  was  pastor  of  the  church 
of  St  Jacobi  in  Hamburg.  As  a  young  man,  the  latter 
studied  philosophy  in  Giessen  and  Marburg,  and  he  left  the 
university  with  no  high  opinion  of  the  scholastic  methods  of 
teaching,  or  of  student  life.  He  had  also  wandered,  on  foot, 
through  the  greater  part  of  Northern  Europe,  and  mingled 
with  all  classes  of  men,  and  in  his  Freund  in  der  Noht 
(I657)1  he  gave  his  son  the  benefit  of  his  own  experience 
in  the  form  of  good  advice. 

"  Ich  bin  kein  gelahrter  Mann,"  he  tells  his  son.  "Allein,  ich 
kenne  die  Welt.  Ich  hab  aber  gar  zu  viel  Lehr-geld  ausgeben, 
biss  ich  die  Welt  hab  kennen  lernen.  Darum  bespiegele  dich  in 
meinem  Exempel,  und  lerne  von  mir  die  Welt  kennen.  Und  wann 
ich  horen  werde,  dass  du  wissest  einen  Unterscheid  zu  machen, 
zwischen  einem  Freund,  und  einem  Complement-macher,  so  will 
ich  viel  von  dir  halten."* 


1  Ed.  W.  Braune  (Neudruckc,  9),  Halle,  1878. 
J  W.  Braune's  edition,  25. 


224      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

In  1635  Schupp  was  appointed  Professor  of  History  and 
Rhetoric  in  Marburg,  and,  fourteen  years  later,  was  called 
to  Hamburg.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  the  Hamburg 
clergy  scented  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing ;  they  accused  him 
of  introducing  satire,  jests,  and  comic  anecdotes  into  his 
sermons,  but  Schupp,  who  had  much  of  Luther's  fighting 
spirit,  soon  proved  himself  more  than  equal  to  them.  His 
writings  (first  collected,  1663)  are  written  in  a  vigorous 
popular  style,  which,  in  its  lack  of  restraint,  sometimes  re- 
minds us  of  Fischart ;  for  Opitz  and  the  poets  of  the  Renais- 
sance he  had  nothing  but  scorn.  His  satire,  like  Logau's,  is 
serious  rather  than  witty,  and  his  standpoint  is  invariably 
one  of  personal  experience  and  conviction.  As  a  preacher, 
Schupp  is  seen  to  most  advantage  in  his  powerful  impeach- 
ment of  Hamburg,  the  Catechismuspredigt  vom  dritten  Gebot 
oder  Gedenk  daran  Hamburg  (1656). 

Abraham  Abraham  a  Santa  Clara  was  a  man  of  a  different  stamp. 
Ciarata  ^e  ^a^  not  ^e  ^earmng  and  experience,  the  wide  human 
1644-1709.  sympathy  of  his  North  German  brother,  but  he  had  more 
genius,  and  a  brilliant  and  incisive  wit.  And  in  matters  of 
religion,  Catholic  monk  and  Protestant  preacher  naturally 
stood  at  opposite  poles.  Santa  Clara's  faith  sat  lightly  on  his 
shoulders;  he  introduced  the  coarsest  anecdotes  and  witti- 
cisms in  his  sermons ;  he  was  ruthless  as  to  the  weapons  with 
which  he  attacked  his  enemies,  and  delighted  in  scurrilous 
personalities ;  but  he  had  the  art  of  clothing  everything  in  a 
light,  interesting,  and  attractive  form,  which  appealed  strongly 
to  the  South  German  Catholic.  In  1679  Vienna  was  visited 
by  the  plague,  and  Santa  Clara  was  obliged  to  suspend  for  a 
time  his  activity  as  a  preacher.  He  employed  his  leisure  in 
writing  tracts  which  were  published  under  characteristic  titles, 
such  as  MerKs  Wien  I  (1680),  Losch  Wien !  (1680).  The 
second  siege  of  Vienna  by  the  Turks  in  1683  was  the  occa- 
sion of  a  powerful  appeal  to  his  fellow-citizens,  Auf,  auf  ihr 
Christen!  (i68o),a  a  tract  which  Schiller  took  as  his  model 
for  the  sermon  of  the  Capuchin  monk  in  Wallensteiris  Lager. 
Again,  in  the  Grosse  Todten  Bruderschafft  (1681),  the  medi- 
eval "  Dance  of  Death  "  is  made  the  basis  of  a  satire.  Santa 

1  Ed.  A.  Sauer  ( Wiener  Neudrucke,  i),  1883. 


CH.  VII.]     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     225 

Clara's  chief  work,  however,  is  Judas  der  Ertzschelm  (I686),1  Judas  der 
which  contains  the  essence  of  his  sermons.  fcheim 

Judas  der  Ertzschelm  is  partly  a  novel,  partly  a  collection  of  1686. 
homilies.  Each  section  of  the  book  begins  with  a  short 
narration,  which  is  followed  by  what  is  practically  a  sermon. 
The  individual  parts  have  little  connection  with  one  another, 
except  in  so  far  as  the  romance  itself  provides  a  thread.  For 
the  story  of  Judas,  Santa  Clara  was  mainly  indebted  to  the 
Legenda  aurea  by  Jacobus  a  Voragine,  and,  in  the  German 
writer's  hands,  it  bears  considerable  resemblance  to  the 
romances  of  the  later  seventeenth  century.  The  mother  of 
Judas,  Ciboria,  learns  in  a  dream  that  the  son  she  will  give 
birth  to  will  be  a  villain ;  so  she  puts  the  child  in  a  basket 
and  throws  it  into  the  sea.  The  basket  ultimately  reaches 
the  island  of  Iscariot,  and  the  child  is  adopted  by  the  queen 
of  that  island.  When  Judas  grows  up,  he  returns  to  Jeru- 
salem, after  having  murdered  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne 
of  Iscariot.  In  Jerusalem,  he  unwittingly  kills  his  father  and 
marries  his  mother.  When  he  learns  what  he  has  done,  he 
is  filled  with  repentance  and  becomes  a  disciple  of  Christ. 
The  part  he  now  plays  is  enlivened  by  incidents  of  a  similarly 
romantic  nature,  and  at  the  close  of  the  book,  the  soul  of 
Judas  is  condemned  to  occupy  a  place  in  the  lowest  quarter 
of  hell,  beside  Lucifer  himself.  The  sermons  in  Judas  der 
Ertzschelm  are,  however,  more  important  than  its  story; 
Geiler's  irony  seems  here  to  be  mingled  with  the  full-blooded 
satire  of  Murner,  while  the  whole  is  expressed  with  Fischart's 
fantastic  love  of  epithets.  Santa  Clara's  work  stands  thus  in 
a  direct  line  with  the  characteristically  South  German  literature 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 

i  Ed.  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.N.L.,  4o[i883].  Cp.  T.  G.  von  Karajan,  Abraham 
a  Santa  Clara,  Vienna,  1867,  and  W.  Scherer,  Vortrage  und  Aufsdlze,  Berlin, 
1874,  147  ff. 


226 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  NOVEL  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

THE  most  important  form  of  German  literature  in  the  second 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  unquestionably  the  novel. 
In  the  preceding  centuries,  there  had  existed  prose  versions  of 
medieval  romances  and  innumerable  collections  of  anecdotes ; 
but,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  novels  of  Jorg  Wickram, 
fiction,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  was  unknown.  Now, 
however,  with  the  help  of  Spanish  and  French  models,  the 
German  novel  began  to  assert  itself  as  an  independent  literary 
genre;  in  other  words,  it  ceased  to  be  merely  a  form  of 
satire  or  didactic  literature.  At  the  same  time,  fiction  was 
more  early  freed  from  didactic  elements  than  from  satire, 
and  even  the  greatest  novel  of  the  century,  Simplicissimus^  is 
often  satirical  in  intention.  The  beginning  of  what  might  be 
described  as  the  transition  from  satire  to  novel  under  Spanish 
influence  is  to  be  seen  in  the  work  of  an  Alsatian,  Hans 
H.  M.  Michael  Moscherosch  (1601-69). 

Mosche-  Moscherosch,  whose  family  was  of  Spanish  origin,  studied 

1601-69.       law  in  Strassburg,  took  his  degree  as  doctor  juris  in  Geneva, 
and  spent  some  time  in  France.     He  then  received  an  ap- 
pointment in  a  small  village  near  Metz,  and  subsequently  at 
Finstingen  on  the  Saar.      For  twelve  years  he  was  exposed 
to   all   the  horrors  of  the  war,  plundered  by  both  parties, 
exposed  to  the  plague,   and   reduced   almost   to   starvation. 
Finally  he  sought  refuge  in  Strassburg,  where  he  was  appointed 
secretary  to   the   town.      And  here  he   published   his   chief 
Cp^,hte,       work,    Wunderliche  vnd  warhafftige   Gesichte  Philanders   von 
von  Sitte-     Sittewald^  of  which  the  first  complete  edition  appeared  in 

wald,  1642- 

43.  J  A  selection  ed.  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.  N.L.,  32  [1884].    For  this  chapter,  cp.  F. 

Bobertag,  Geschichte  des  Romans  in  Deutsckland,  i,  2,  Berlin,  1876-84. 


CH.  VIII.]    EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.    22/ 

1642  and  1643.  At  least  half  of  these  "Visions"  are  direct 
imitations  of  a  collection  of  "  Dreams  "  (Suenos)  by  the  Spanish 
writer,  Francisco  de  Quevedo,  which,  however,  Moscherosch 
only  knew  in  a  French  translation.  Moscherosch  treated  his 
original  as  Fischart  had  treated  Rabelais;  he  made  it  a  re- 
ceptacle for  his  own  ideas  and  observations,  and  the  condition 
of  his  country  gave  him  more  opportunity  for  satire  than 
Quevedo  had  found  in  Spain.  In  the  first  of  the  visions 
(Schergen-Teuffel\  Philander  is  shown  the  futility  of  justice  ; 
in  the  second  (Welt-Wesen\  he  sees  the  vanity  and  hypocrisy 
of  the  world;  while  the  favc&^Venus-Narren)  is  a  satire  on 
the  "  fools  of  love."  The  most  powerful  and  imaginative  of 
the  visions  is  that  in  which  Philander  finds  himself  in  hell, 
and  sees  his  contemporaries  as  Hollen-Kinder.  In  A  la  mode 
KehrauS)  German  slavery  to  things  foreign  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  had  been  the  favourite  butt  of  satirists  all  through 
the  century,  is  once  more  attacked,  and  Soldaten-Leben,  in 
which  Moscherosch  obviously  draws  from  his  own  experi- 
ences, gives  a  repellently  realistic  picture  of  the  demoralisa- 
tion of  the  land  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Moscherosch 
is  less  of  a  novelist  than  his  Spanish  original ;  his  hero's 
adventures  only  interest  him  in  so  far  as  they  afford  him 
an  opportunity  for  satire.  As  far  as  originality  is  concerned, 
the  Gesichte  Philanders  cannot  be  compared  with  Fischart's 
Gargantua,  but  it  suffers  from  the  same  formlessness  and 
contempt  of  style ;  Moscherosch  falls  into  those  literary  vices 
of  exaggeration  and  pedantic  phraseology  which  he  satirises. 
But  the  pictures  he  calls  up  are  vivid,  and  the  occasional 
verses  scattered  through  the  book  are  in  the  vigorous  style 
of  the  Volkslied. 

To  the  Thirty  Years'  War  was  due  one  significant  book, 
Simplicius  Simplidssimus^  a  romance  which  may  be  said  to 
form  the  link  between  the  Middle  High   German  epic  and 
the  modern  novel.     The  author  of  Simplicissimus  was  a  writer 
of  many  pseudonyms ;  his  real  name,  however,  seems  to  have 
been  Johann  Jakob  Christoffel,  to  which  he  himself  added  j.  j.  Chris- 
von  Grimmelshausen.     He  was  born  about  1624  at  Gelnhausen  J?^1  vo" 
in   Hesse,  and  as  a  boy  of  ten  was  carried  off  by  soldiers  hausen, 
and  had  his  first  taste  of  the  war.     He  fought  now  on  the  ca-  l624' 
one    side,   now   on    the    other.      In    1646    he  is   known    to  7  ' 
have  been  in  Offenburg,  where  he  went  over  to  the  Catholic 


228     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Der  Aben- 

theurliche 

Simpli- 

cissimus, 

1669. 


Church,  and  the  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent  as  bailiff 
("  Schultheiss ")  in  Renchen  on  the  border  of  the  Black 
Forest,  where  he  died  in  1676.  Before  writing  Simplicis- 
sitnus,  Grimmelshausen  experimented  with  Traumgesichte 
similar  to  those  of  Moscherosch,  and  tried  his  hand  at 
translating  a  French  novel,  Der  fliegende  Wandersmann  nach 
dent  Monde  (1659).  Under  the  influence  of  the  early  Spanish 
picaresque  romances  which  had  been  translated  into  German 
early  in  the  century,1  he  discovered  his  vocation  and  became 
the  creator  of  the  German  "  Schelmenroman."  Der  Aben- 
theurliche  Simplicissimus  Teutsch,  Das  ist :  Die  Beschreibung 
dess  Lebens  eines  seltzamen  Vaganten,  genant  Melchior  Sternfels 
von  fuchshaim,  wo  und  welcher  gestalt  Er  nemlich  in  diese 
Welt  kommen,  was  er  darinn  gesehen,  gelernet,  erfahren  und 
aussgestanden,  auch  warumb,  er  solche  wieder  freywillig  quittirt* 
was  printed  at  Montbeliard  in  1669. 

In  the  story  of  Simplicius  Simplicissimus's  youth  there 
is  an  unconscious  echo  of  Wolfram's  Parzival,  Of  good 
birth,  the  boy  is  brought  up  in  the  Spessart  by  a  peasant, 
whom  he  believes  to  be  his  father.  He  is  a  simple  child 
who  plays  a  "Sackpfeife"  or  bagpipe,  and  herds  his  flock 
in  happy  innocence.  His  first  glimpse  of  the  world  of 
men  comes  to  him,  as  it  came  to  Parzival,  from  soldiers — 
not,  however,  courteous  knights,  but  rough  cuirassiers  who 
fall  upon  the  village,  burn  and  pillage  all  they  can  find,  and 
carry  off  Simplicissimus,  who  clings  to  his  bagpipe  as  his 
most  precious  possession.  Like  Parzival  again,  he  comes 
to  a  hermit  in  the  forest, — who,  as  he  only  discovers  long 
afterwards,  is  his  own  father, — and  for  two  years  he  sits  at 
the  hermit's  feet,  learning  wisdom  from  him.  The  hermit 
dies,  and  Simplicius  once  more  falls  into  the  hands  of 
soldiers.  He  is  brought  to  the  Governor  of  Hanau,  who 
learns  that  he  is  his  own  nephew,  and  makes  him  his  page. 

1  Mendoza's  Lasarillo  de  Tonnes  (1554)1  the  earliest  picaresque  romance, 
was  translated  into  German  in  1617,  but  there  had  appeared,  four  years  earlier, 
a  translation  of  Aleman's  Guzman  de  Alfarache  (1599),  by  Agidius  Albertinus. 
On  Albertinus  (1560-1620),  who  was  secretary  to  Duke  Maximilian  of  Bavaria, 
and  translated  extensively  from  the  Spanish,  cp.  R.  von  Liliencron  in  D.N.L., 
26  [1883].     A  translation  of  part  of  Don  Quixote  appeared  in  1625,  the  first 
complete  one  in  1683.     Cp.  A.  Schneider,  Spaniens  Anteil  an  der  deutschen 
Litteralur  des  16.  und  17.  Jahrh.,  Strassburg,  1898. 

2  Ed.  J.  Tittmann  (Deutsche  Dichter,  7,   8),   2nd  ed.,   Leipzig,   1877;    R. 
Kogel  in  the  Neudrucke,  19-25,  Halle,  1880.     The  edition  in  D.N.L.  is  by  F. 
Bobertag,  33-34  [1882]. 


CH.  VIII.]    EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.    229 

But  Simplicius  is  ill  adapted  for  a  life  of  this  kind  ;  he  is.  only 
laughed  at,  and  an  attempt  is  even  made  to  convert  him  into 
a  court  fool  by  unhinging  his  mind.  One  day  he  is  carried 
off  by  Croats  and  experiences  all  the  terrors  of  the  war. 
Gradually,  however,  he  accommodates  himself  to  their  wild 
mode  of  life ;  he  becomes  a  thief  and  an  adventurer.  In  two 
comrades,  Olivier  and  Herzbruder,  he  finds  his  good  and  his 
bad  angel,  and  the  fortune  of  war,  in  which  the  lawless 
soldiers  of  the  time  had  more  faith  than  in  King  or  Kaiser, 
favours  him.  He  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Swedes,  but  is 
well  treated  ;  he  discovers  a  large  treasure,  and  is  inveigled  into 
an  unhappy  marriage.  In  the  course  of  further  adventures  he 
finds  his  way  to  Cologne  and  Paris,  where  he  flourishes  as 
"  beau  alman  " — i.e.,  beau  allemand.  Meanwhile,  however,  he 
has  lost  all  his  wealth,  and  has  no  option  but  to  become  a 
soldier  again.  His  old  comrade  Olivier  tempts  him  to 
join  him  in  a  life  of  open  brigandage ;  Herzbruder  leads 
him  back  to  his  true  self.  His  wife  is  dead,  and  he 
longs  for  a  peaceful  life.  He  buys  a  farm  and  marries 
again,  but  this  marriage  is  also  unhappy,  and  he  seeks 
consolation  in  his  love  for  adventure ;  he  goes  out  once 
more  into  the  world,  penetrating  as  far  as  Asia.  After  three 
years  he  returns  to  his  foster  father  in  the  Spessart  and  settles 
down  among  his  long-forgotten  books  to  a  life  of  meditation 
and  repentance. 

That,  in  rough  outlines,  is  the  story  of  this  Parzival  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  But  it  is  not  easy  to  convey  an  idea  of 
the  vivid  realism  and  hearty  popular  tone  of  the  book ;  and 
behind  the  author's  mask  there  is  always  an  earnest  face, 
earnest  without  the  harshness  of  the  satirist.  Subsequently, 
Grimmelshausen  was  tempted  to  provide  Simplirissimus  with  a 
Continuatio  oder  Schluss  desselben,  in  which  the  hero's  earlier 
adventures  were  surpassed ;  but  only  the  close  of  this  continu- 
ation, where  Simplicius  retires  from  the  world  to  a  lonely 
island,  is  in  harmony  with  the  original  work.  Grimmelshausen 
himself  had  higher  literary  ambitions  than  to  be  merely  the 
author  of  a  popular  "  Schelmenroman."  Simplicissimus  was 
not  refined  enough  to  win  him  recognition  in  polite  circles,  and 
he  attempted  a  gallant  novel  in  the  fashionable  style  of  the 
time ;  but  realising  that  his  strength  did  not  lie  in  writing  of 
this  kind,  he  returned  to  the  popular,  homely  style  of  his  chief 


230     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.     [PT.  III. 


Other 
writings. 


C.  Weise. 
1642-1708. 


novel.  His  other  Simplidanische  Schriften?-  such  as  Trutz 
Simplex,  oder  Lebensbeschreibung  der  Ertzbetriigerin  und  Land- 
stbrtzerin  Courasche  (ca.  1669),  Der  seltzame  Springinsfeld 
(1670),  and  Das  wunderbarliche  Vogel-Nest  (1672),  are  also 
stories  of  the  war,  and  may  be  regarded  as  forming  a  supple- 
ment to  Simplicissimus. 

Grimmelshausen  is  the  one  novelist  of  genius  in  his 
century ;  the  others  do  not  rise  above  mediocrity.  Christian 
Weise,2  for  instance  (1642-1708),  rector  of  the  Gymnasium  at 
Zittau,  wrote  between  1670  and  1678,  while  professor  in 
Weissenfels,  several  satirical  novels  {Die  drey  iirgsten  Ertz- 
Narren,  1672,  and  Die  drey  Kliigsten  Leute  in  der  gantzen 
Welt,  1675),  which,  with  allowance  for  the  wide  gap  that  separ- 
ates them  from  Simplicissimus,  add  to  the  picture  which 
that  work  gives  of  the  period.  Weise  is  not  naturalistic  as 
Grimmelshausen  is ;  he  always  writes  with  a  view  to  improving 
his  readers.  If  he  is  satirical,  it  is  in  a  pointedly  didactic 
way,  never  humorously  and  unconsciously.  As  a  poet,  how- 
ever, he  appears  in  a  much  more  favourable  light.  His 
Uberfliissige  Gedanken  der  griinenden  Jugend  (1668),  written  in 
his  student  days  in  Leipzig,  are,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
he  looked  up  to  Opitz  as  his  master,  strongly  reminiscent  of 
the  Volkslied.  Weise  is  best  remembered  by  his  plays ;  he 
was  the  most  prolific  dramatist  of  the  century,  being  credited 
with  no  less  than  fifty- four  pieces,  of  which,  however,  only 
about  half  have  been  published.  As  characteristic  examples 
of  his  work  may  be  mentioned,  Bduerischer  Machiavellus,  in 
einem  Lustspiel  vorgestellt  (1679),  the  Trauerspiel  von  dem 
Neapolitanischen  Hauptrebellen  Masaniello  (1682),  and  the 
Komodie  von  der  bbsen  Katharina  (1705),  the  last  a  long 
and  tedious  version  of  the  Taming  of  the  Shrew.  Weise's 
ideas  of  dramatic  construction  were  rudimentary ;  his  plays 
were,  in  a  literal  sense,  school  dramas,  being  performed  only 
by  scholars,  and  they  are  no  more  theatrical  than  the  Latin 
School  Comedies.  But,  compared  with  the  stilted  Alex- 
andrines of  Gryphius  and  the  bombast  of  Lohenstein,  his 

l  Simplidanische  Schriflen,  ed.  J.  Tittmann  (Deutsche  Dichter,  10,  n), 
Leipzig,  1877 ;  also  in  D.N.L,  ed.  F.  Bobertag,  35  [1883]. 

a  Cp.  L.  Fulda  in  D.N.L.,  39  ;  Weise's  Die  drey  argsten  Erlz-Narren  in  der 
gantzen  Welt  (1672)  is  edited  by  W.  Braune  in  the  Neudrucke,  12-14,  Halle, 
1878.  Cp.  H.  Palm,  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  LUteratur  des  16. 
und  17.  Jakrh.,  Breslau,  1877,  i  ff. 


CH.  VIII.]    EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.    231 

straightforward,  natural  prose — shallow  and  trivial  as  are  the 

ideas  it  expresses — was  an  advance.    A  more  brilliant  satirical 

writer  was  Christian  Reuter  (born  1665),  the  author  of  Schel-  C.  Reiner's 

muffskys  warhafftige  Curiose  und  sehr  gefdhrliche  Reisebeschrei- 

bung  Zu  Wasser  und  Lande  (i6^6),1  an  admirable  forerunner   1696. 

of  the  braggart  romance  which  attained  its  classic  form  in  the 

Reisen  des  Freyherrn  von  Miinchhausen  (1786). 

The  modern  novel  of  adventure,  foreshadowed  in  Simpli-  The 
cissimus,  was  a  creation  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  dates  gonaden  " 
from  the  appearance  of  Daniel  Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe  in 
1719.  This  novel  was  at  once  translated  into  German,  and 
called  forth  an  enormous  number  of  imitations.  There  was 
a  teutscher  Robinson,  a  franzosischer  Robinson,  an  italienischer 
Robinson,  and  every  country  in  Germany — Saxony,  Silesia, 
Thuringia,  Swabia — had  its  own  Robinson.  In  1723  ap- 
peared a  gets  flicker  Robinson;  in  1732,  a  medizinischer 
Robinson ;  even  a  Jungfer  Robinson  (1723)  and  a  bb'hmische 
Robinsonin  (1753)  are  included  in  the  list.  The  best  and 
most  important  was  the  Wunderlichen  Fata  einiger  See-  Insel  Fel- 
fahrer,  absonderlich  Alberti  Julii,  eines  gebohrnen  Sachsens 
und  seiner  auf  der  Insel  Felsenburg  errichteten  Colonien, 
by  J.  G.  Schnabel,  which  appeared  in  four  volumes  between 
1731  and  I743-2  The  confusion  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
compels  the  hero,  Albertus  Julius,  to  seek  a  new  home  in 
unknown  seas;  he  is  ultimately  shipwrecked  on  the  island 
of  Felsenburg,  where  he  establishes  an  ideal  state.  Chrono- 
logically, the  "  Robinsonaden  "  belong  to  the  eighteenth,  and 
even  to  the  nineteenth  century,  for  one  of  the  most  successful 
imitations  of  De  Foe's  novel,  Der  Schweizerische  Robinson  oder 
der  schiffbrtichige  Schweizer-Prediger  und  seine  Familie,  by  J.  R. 
Wyss,  appeared  in  Zurich  as  late  as  1812-27.  But  in  the 
general  evolution  of  European  literature,  Robinson  Crusoe  and 
its  imitations  are  rooted  in  the  seventeenth  century.  They 
are  the  first  virile  expression  of  the  modern  spirit  of  adven- 
ture, and  give  voice  for  the  first  time  to  that  repugnance  to 
civilisation  and  desire  for  a  return  to  nature  which  Rousseau 
made  a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  European  thought. 

1  See  Neudrucke  57-59,  90,  91,  Halle,  1885-90.     Cp.  F.  Zarncke,  Christian 
Reuter,  Leipzig,  1884,  and  D.N.L.,  35,  xvi  ff. 

2  Cp.  A.  Kippenberg,  Robinsonaden  in  Deutschland  bis  sur  Insel  Felsen-  c 
burg,  Hannover,  1892,  and  H.  Ullrich,  Robinson  und  Robinsonaden,  \,  Weimar, 
i8q8. 


232      EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 


Philipp  von 

Zesen, 

1619-89. 


Other 
novelists. 


H.  A. von 

Ziegler's 

Asiatische 

Banise, 

1688. 


The  novel  of  gallant  adventures,  the  dominant  type  of 
European  fiction  in  the  seventeenth  century,  found  as  eager 
a  public  in  Germany  as  the  "Schelmenromane."  Among 
the  translators  of  French  novels  of  this  class,  Philipp  von 
Zesen,  who  has  already  been  mentioned  as  the  founder  of 
a  linguistic  society  in  Hamburg,  showed  the  most  original 
talent;  he  also  wrote  novels  of  his  own — Die  adriatische 
Rosemund  (I645),1  Assenat  (1670),  Simson,  eine  Helden-  und 
Liebes-Geschicht  (1679) — which  were  no  less  widely  read  than 
the  imported  stories.  Another  voluminous  scribbler  of  the 
time,  E.  W.  Happel  (1647-90),  wrote,  in  a  lumbering  style, 
romances  of  this  class,  in  which  descriptions  of  different 
parts  of  the  globe  are  a  prominent  feature.  He  was  also 
the  author  of  nine  pseudo-historical  novels.  A  Duke  of 
Brunswick,  Anton  Ulrich  (1633-1714),  wrote  a  Durchleuchtige 
Syrerinn  Aramena  (1669-73),  and  a  learned  novel  on  the 
Romische  Octavia  (1677),  which  also  belong  to  the  class  of 
would-be  historical  romance.  Most  popular  of  all,  however, 
was  Des  Christlichen  Teutschen  Gross-Fursten  Herkules  und  der 
Bohmischen  Koniglichen  Fraulein  Valiska  Wunder-Geschichte 
(1659-60),  by  A.  H.  Bucholtz  (1607-71). 

The  best  of  these  "gallant"  novels,  if  only  because  the 
simplest  and  most  skilfully  constructed,  was  the  Asiatische 
Banise  oder  blutiges  dock  mutiges  Pegu  (i688),2  by  Heinrich 
Anshelm  von  Ziegler  (1653-97).  The  fact  that  the  scene 
of  this  romance  was  laid  in  the  distant  East,  and  that  an 
attempt  was  made  to  give  tropical  colouring  to  the  scenes,  lent 
piquancy  to  the  plot,  and  some  of  the  characters,  especially 
the  villainous  Chaumigrem,  are  vigorously  drawn  and  remained 
popular  types  until  late  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  style 
is  bombastic,  but  not  always  so  absurd  as  in  the  curse  with 
which  the  novel  opens  : — 

"  Blitz,  donner  und  hagel,  als  die  rachenden  werckzeuge  des 
gerechten  himmels,  zerschmettere  den  pracht  deiner  gold- 
bedeckten  thiirme,  und  die  rache  der  Cotter  verzehre  alle 
besitzer  der  stadt :  welche  den  untergang  des  Koniglichen 
hauses  befdrdert,  .  .  .  Wolten  die  Cotter !  es  konten  meine 
augen  zu  donner-schwangern  wolcken,  und  diese  meine  thranen 
zu  grausamen  siind-fluthen  werden  :  Ich  wolte  mit  tausend  keulen, 


i  Ed.  M.  Jellinek  (Neudrucke,  160-163).  Halle,  1899. 
a  Ed.  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.N.L.,  37  [1883]. 


CH.  VIII.]    EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.    233 

als  ein  feuer-vverck  rechtmassigen  zorns,  nach  dem  hertzen  des 
vermaledeyten  blut-hundes  werffen,  und  dessen  gewiss  nicht 
verfehlen." 

A  more  marked  decadence  is  to  be  seen  in  the  work  of  two 
writers  of  the  so-called  Second-  Silesian  School,  from  whom 
Ziegler  had  learned  — Christian  Hofmann  von  Hofmanns-  c.  H.  von 
waldau  (1617-79)  and  Daniel  Casper  von  Lohenstein  (1635-  ^°^unns" 
83).  Hoffman nswaldau l  grew  up  under  the  influence  of  1617-79. 
Opitz,  travelled  widely,  and  from  Italy  brought  back  the 
decadent  literary  art  of  Guarini  and  Marino;  in  1678,  he 
translated  the  former's  Pastor  fido.  The  concetti  of  Marino, 
and  the  estilo  culto  of  the  Spaniard  Gongora,  were  the  sources 
of  a  disease  of  style  which  left  deep  traces  on  all  the  chief 
European  literatures  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies ;  in  England  this  affected  elegance  appeared  as  Euphu- 
ism, in  France  it  was  cultivated  by  the  precieuses  of  the  Hotel 
Rambouillet.  In  Germany  both  Hofmannswaldau  and  Lohen- 
stein looked  up  to  Marino  as  an  unsurpassable  poet,  but 
the  popularity  of  the  "  liebliche  Schreibart "  was  chiefly  due 
to  Hofmannswaldau.  His  most  characteristic  work  is  the 
Heldenbriefe  (1680),  a  collection  of  love-epistles  in  verse 
and  prose,  which  gained  for  him  the  title  of  the  German 
Ovid.  Another  publication,  Herrn  von  Hofmannswaldau  und 
anderer  Deatschen  auserlesene  Gedichte,  only  contains,  it  may 
be  noted,  a  few  poems  by  Hofmannswaldau.  The  first  volume 
of  this  work,  which  appeared  in  1695,  edited  by  B.  Neukirch, 
touched,  beyond  question,  the  lowest  level  to  which  the  Ger- 
man lyric  ever  sank. 

Hofmannswaldau's  disciple,  Lohenstein,2  was  the  dramatist  D.  C.  von 
of  the  Second  Silesian  School.     Gryphius  was  naturally  the  ^°^eiy6 
model  that  lay  nearest  Lohenstein's  hand,  and  by  his  fifteenth   83. 
year  he  had  written  a  tragedy,  Ibrahim  Bassa  (first  published 
in  1685),  which,  in  accumulation  of  horror  and  excess,  left 
Gryphius  far  behind.     The  further  he  advanced,  the  more 
Lohenstein  revelled  in  blood,  incest,  and  cruelty.     He  adapted 
even  themes  like  Cleopatra  (1661)  and  Sophonisbe  (published 
*i68o)  to  his  purposes,  but  the  plots  of  tragedies  such  as 
Epicharis  (1665)  and  Agrippina  (1665)  were  more  congenial 

1  Selections  ed.  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.N.L.,  36  [1885],  i  ff.     Cp.  J.  Ettlinger, 
C,  Hofman  von  Hofmanswaldau,  Halle,  1891. 

2  Cleopatra,  ed.   F.   Bobertag,  in   D.N.L.,   36,    in   ff.,  a  selection  from 
Arminius  und  Thussnelda  in  D.N.L.,  37,  462  ff. 


234     EARLY  NEW  HIGH  GERMAN  LITERATURE.      [PT.  III. 

to  him.  The  novel  which  Lohenstein  published  in  1689-90 
Arminius,  under  the  title  Grossmiithiger  Feldherr  Arminius,  oder  Herr- 
1689-90.  mann  als  ein  tapferer  Beschirmer  der  deutschen  Freiheit  nebst 
seiner  durchlauchtigsten  Thussnelda  in  einer  sinnreichen  Staats-, 
Liebes-  und  Helden-Geschichte  .  .  .  vorgestellet,  is  by  no  means 
so  lacking  in  good  taste  as  his  dramas.  It  is  long,  tedious, 
and  learned ;  it  is  didactic  and  persistently  patriotic ;  but  the 
narrative  is  written  with  skill  and  events  are  vividly  described. 
The  author  is  at  his  best  when  he  is  carried  away  by  his 
interest  in  what  he  has  to  tell,  and  forgets  the  rules  of  his  ars 
poetica.  On  the  whole,  Lohenstein's  talents  show  to  much 
more  advantage  in  his  novel  than  in  his  plays,  and  had  he 
been  born  in  a  more  auspicious  age,  he  might  have  produced 
work  of  permanent  worth. 

The  faint  light  of  the  German  Renaissance  had  thus 
flickered  out  before  the  seventeenth  century  reached  its 
close.  Intellectually,  it  was  certainly  not  a  glorious  century 
in  Germany's  development,  yet  there  had  been  many  elements 
of  promise  in  it.  What  might  have  happened  had  the 
nation  been  spared  the  desolation  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  say,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  political 
conditions  produced  by  the  war  retarded  the  growth  of 
German  literature  by  at  least  fifty  years.  The  main  fact  is 
that  the  German  people  fell  into  a  slavish  imitation  of  the 
customs  and  ideas  of  the  Romance  nations.  That  this  period 
of  imitation  lasted  so  long  was,  in  general,  due  to  the  un- 
toward political  conditions ;  but  there  was  also,  perhaps, 
another  reason  :  the  Germans  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
more  anxious  to  imitate  than  to  learn ;  they  overlooked  the 
fact  that  they  were  only  in  a  backward  state  of  development 
compared  with  the  other  nations  of  Europe.  The  conse- 
quence was  that  until  nearly  the  middle  of  the  succeeding 
century,  German  thought  and  German  literature  suffered 
under  the  disadvantages  of  an  inward  pride  and  an  excessive 
self-esteem. 


PART    IV. 
THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 


CHAPTER    I. 

RATIONALISM    AND    ENGLISH    INFLUENCE. 

AT  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  none,  even  among  the 
smaller  nationalities  of  Europe,  was  intellectually  so  insignifi- 
cant as  that  which  spoke  the  German  tongue.  Renaissance 
and  Reformation  had  brought  glory  to  France  and  England ; 
to  Germany  they  had,  as  we  have  seen,  brought  only  the 
veriest  beginnings  of  a  national  literature,  and  these  be- 
ginnings were  soon  swept  away  by  the  storms  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  The  year  1700  found  France  still  full  of  pride  The 
in  her  grand  stick,  and  England  looking  forward  rather  eighteenth 
than  back.  Rationalism,  the  logical  development  of  that 
empiricism  first  taught  by  Bacon,  had  found  able  champions 
in  Locke  and  the  English  Deists,  and  was  established  before 
long  as  the  philosophic  faith  of  France.  Again,  the  eigh- 
teenth century  was  still  young  when  individualism,  a  move- 
ment of  even  more  far-reaching  consequences  for  the  history 
of  literature,  originated  in  England ;  and  on  the  individualism 
of  English  thinkers  and  writers,  Rousseau  set  the  stamp  of 
cosmopolitanism.  Compared  with  such  vigorous  intellectual 
activity  in  England  and  France,  all  that  Germany  had  to 
show  until  past  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
as  nothing;  her  literature  had  hardly  vigour  enough  to 
imitate  with  success — not  to  speak  of  rivalling — the  pro- 
ductions of  her  neighbours. 

And  yet  this  nation,  which,  in  1 700,  lay  thus  prostrate, 
possessed  undreamt  -  of  germs  of  spiritual  vitality.  With 
phenomenal  rapidity,  Germany  passed  through  a  period  of 
rationalism,  then  assimilated  the  best  ideas  of  English  and 
French  individualism,  and,  before  the  century  had  reached 


238  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

its  close,  produced  a  philosophy  and  a  literature  not  un- 
worthy to  be  placed  beside  the  best  of  modern  Europe. 
The  helpless  Germany  of  1700  had,  in  1800,  become  a 
leading  intellectual  power.  No  nation  was  ever  more  in 
debt  than  was  Germany  to  France  and  England  for  nearly 
three-quarters  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  none  repaid  a  debt 
more  generously  than  Germany  hers  in  the  last  quarter  of 
that  century. 

The  first  indication  of  a  revival  of  intellectual  life  before  the 
period  under  consideration  began,  was  a  breath  of  Cartesian- 
ism  which,  coming  from  Holland,  agitated  slightly  the  surface 
of  the  stagnant  Lutheran  theology.  Then  Spinoza's  philo- 
sophy, which  left,  however,  deeper  traces  behind  it,  passed 
over  Germany,  and,  finally,  as  a  kind  of  protest  against  the 
strictness  of  Protestant  orthodoxy,  a  wave  of  that  Pietism 
Pietism.  with  which,  a  generation  earlier,  Jakob  Bohme  had  infused 
new  vigour  into  religious  life.  The  chief  representative  of 
German  Pietism  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  was 
p.  j.  an  Alsatian,  Philipp  Jakob  Spener  (1635-1 705), x  whose  Pia 

Spener,        Desideria   (1675)   formed   the   basis   for  the   revival.      But 

l6"?^-I7Otv 

German  Pietism,  unlike  English  Puritanism,  with  which  it 
may,  in  many  respects,  be  compared,  was  not  a  militant 
faith ;  its  watchword  was  renunciation,  its  thoughts  were 
fixed  on  the  millennium ;  its  meekness  was  little  adapted 
to  stir  the  nation  to  intellectual  achievement  The  hymns 
and  religious  poetry  of  Spener  himself,  of  Joachim  Neander 
(1650-80),  of  Gerhard  Tersteegen  (1697-1769),  of  the  prolific 
Graf  von  Zinzendorf  (1700-60),  strike  an  intensely  personal 
note :  they  have  often  the  sweetness  of  love-poetry,  but  their 
spirit  is  essentially  passive.  The  only  work  of  real  import- 
ance called  forth  by  Pietism  was  the  Unpartheyische  Kirchen- 
und  Ketzerhistorie  (1698-1700)  by  Gottfried  Arnold  (1666- 
1714),  a  book  which,  even  in  Goethe's  youth,  had  not 
wholly  lost  its  interest.  In  the  universities,  the  chief  repre- 
sentative of  the  movement  was  Spener's  chief  scholar,  A. 
H.  Francke  (1663-1727),  who,  as  professor  in  Halle  from 
1692  onwards,  exerted  a  far-reaching  influence  on  German 
educational  methods. 

The  chief  German  pioneer  of  intellectual  progress  in  the 
period  under  consideration  was  Samuel  Pufendorf  (1632-94), 

1  A.  Ritschl,  GeschichU  des  Pietismus,  3  vols.,  Bonn,  1880-86,  2,  95  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  239 

who  built  up  his  system  of  "  natural  law  "  upon  the  ideas 
of  Hugo  Grotius  and  Hobbes.  And  it  was  as  a  disciple  of 
Pufendorf  that  Christian  Thomasius  (1665-1728),  the  first  C.  Thoma- 
German  rationalist,  began  his  career  as  a  teacher  in  the  *IU2S£ l665" 
University  of  Leipzig.  Filled  with  the  ideals  of  the  new 
humanism,  Thomasius  endeavoured  to  bring  the  universities 
into  closer  touch  with  the  national  life  :  this  was  the  object 
he  had  in  view  when,  in  1687-88,  he  delivered  in  Leipzig 
the  first  course  of  lectures  in  the  German  tongue  that  had 
ever  been  held  in  a  university.  Besides  lecturing  in  Ger- 
man, he  also  wrote  in  German,  and,  in  1688  and  1689, 
published  the  first  German  monthly  journal,  Scherz-  und 
ernsthafte,  -verniinftige  und  einfdltige  Gedanken  ilber  allerhand 
lustige  und  niitzliche  Biicher  und  Fragen,  a  forerunner  of  the 
voluminous  literature  which,  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  later, 
was  modelled  on  the  English  Spectator. 

A  more  universal  genius  than  Thomasius,  and,  in  the 
history  of  philosophy,  a  vastly  more  important  figure,  is  Gott- 
fried Wilhelm  Leibniz  (1646  -  I7I6),1  the  first  of  the  great  G.w. 
German  thinkers.  Leibniz,  who,  like  Thomasius,  was  a  native 
of  Leipzig,  shared  the  latter's  humanistic  ideals,  and  his  philo- 
sophic system  (Nouveaux  Essais  sur  Ventendement  humain, 
1704;  Essais  de  Thtodicte  sur  la  bontt  de  £>ieu,  la  libertt  de 
I  homme  et  rorigine  du  mal,  1710;  Monadologie,  1714)  was,  in 
its  conciliating  optimism,  more  akin  to  the  idealism  of  Plato 
than  to  the  English  philosophy  of  Locke.  He  endeavoured 
to  bridge  over  the  dualism  in  the  universe  which  Descartes' 
philosophy  had  accentuated,  to  establish  a  harmony  between 
matter  and  spirit.  To  effect  this  harmony,  he  set  up  the 
hypothesis  that  the  ultimate  constituents  of  matter  were  what 
he  called  "  monads,"  that  is,  ideal  atoms  endowed  with 
spiritual  potentiality.  But  besides  being  a  metaphysician, 
Leibniz  had  spacious  plans  for  the  advancement  of  Ger- 
man culture  and  learning ;  it  was  through  his  influence  that 
the  Berlin  Academy  was  founded  in  1700,  and  although  he 
himself  wrote  for  the  most  part  in  Latin  and  French,  he 
advocated,  in  his  Unvorgreiffliche  Gedanken^  betreffend  die 
Ausiibung  und  Verbesserung  der  Teutschen  Sprache  (1697),  the 

1  The  philosophical  writings  of  Leibniz  are  best  edited  by  C.  J.  Gerhardt, 
7  vols.,  Berlin,  1875-90.  Cp.  K.  Fischer,  Leibniz  und  seine  Schule,  3rd  ed., 
Heidelberg,  1890. 


240 


THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


C.  von 
Wolff, 
1679-1754. 


use  of  the  German  language.  It  cannot  be  said  that  his 
philosophy  had  any  immediate  effect  on  the  development  of 
German  letters,  but  he  quickened  the  intellectual  life  of  his 
time,  and  deepened  and  spiritualised  the  rationalism  of  English 
and  French  thinkers.  In  the  writings  of  Germany's  representa- 
tive rationalist  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
Christian  von  Wolff  .(1679  - 1754),  tne  influence  of  Leibniz 
is  conspicuous.  With  Wolff,  who  was  professor  in  Halle, 
the  work  which  Thomasius  had  begun  was  carried  another 
step  forward ;  the  new  philosophy  crystallised  in  Wolff's 
hands  into  a  kind  of  modern  scholasticism,  and  under  this 
form  triumphed  over  the  orthodox  theology.  From  Halle, 
rationalism  spread  rapidly  through  all  the  German  uni- 
versities. 

As  the  seventeenth  century  drew  to  its  close,  Germany 
was  gradually  coming  into  closer  touch  with  both  France 
and  England.  The  efforts  of  the  first  Silesian  school  to 
create  a  literature  modelled  on  that  of  the  French  Renais- 
sance, had,  as  has  been  shown,  soon  degenerated  into  the 
bombast  of  the  second  school.  But  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth, 
the  attempt  was  again  made  to  stay  the  deterioration  01 
German  poetry  by  re  -  establishing  relations  with  French 
literature.  The  younger  writers  of  this  time  had  before 
them,  instead  of  the  French  Renaissance,  to  which  Opitz 
looked  for  his  models,  the  most  brilliant  epoch  in  all 
French  literature ;  but  this  advantage  availed  them  little. 
Opponents  The  literary  achievements  of  these  opponents  of  the  second 
Silesian  school  were  even  more  mediocre  than  the  poetry 
of  the  first  school.  Rudolf  von  Canitz  (1654-99),  Benjamin 
Neukirch  (1665  -1729), J  Johann  von  Besser  (1654-1729), 
J.  V.  Pietsch  (1690-1733) — whom  Gottsched  eulogised  as 
the  first  poet  of  the  age  —  and  J.  U.  von  Konig  (1688- 
1744),  with  their  tedious  odes,  written  according  to  the 
letter  of  Boileau's  Art  pottique>  and  their  epics, — deserts 
without  an  oasis  of  poetry, — hardly  deserve  to  be  called 
poets  at  all.  The  most  that  can  be  said  of  them  is 
that  they  had  sufficient  taste  to  prevent  them  falling  into 
the  absurd  extravagance  of  their  immediate  predecessors. 


of  the 
second 
Silesian 
school. 


1  A  selection  from  Canitz  and  Neukirch  in  Die  Gegner  der  zweiten  schle- 
sischen  Schule,  ed.  L.  Fulda,  2  (D.N.L.,  39  [1883]),  383-504. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  24! 

Historically  their  chief  interest  for  us  is  that  they  formed 
the  literary  milieu  in  which  Gottsched  grew  up.  Among 
them,  however,  was  one  genuine  poet,  Johann  Christian 
Giinther,1  who  was  born  at  Striegau  in  Silesia  in  1695.  Un-  j.  c.  Gtin- 
happy  love  affairs,  thwarted  ambitions  and  dissipation,  which  ther>  l69S- 
brought  him  into  bitter  conflict  with  his  father,  made  up 
Giinther's  life,  and  he  died  in  1723,  before  he  had  completed 
his  twenty-eighth  year ;  the  first  collection  of  his  Gedichte 
appeared  in  1724.  Giinther  was  too  much  a  child  of  his  age 
not  to  respect  Boileau,  but  his  own  tragic  experiences  taught 
him  the  best  part  of  his  art.  From  the  Volkslied,  too — which 
at  this  very  time  rose  to  Print  Eugen  der  edle  Ritter — he 
learned  to  be  simple,  although  he  might  perhaps  have  learned 
still  more.  Notwithstanding  the  unfavourable  conditions 
under  which  he  lived  and  wrote,  verses  came  from  his  pen 
which,  in  depth  and  purity  of  lyrical  feeling,  had  not  been 
surpassed  in  the  previous  century  by  Dach  or  Fleming. 

"  Will  ich  dich  doch  gerne  meiden, 
Gieb  mir  nur  noch  einen  Kuss, 
Eh  ich  sonst  das  letzte  leiden 
Und  den  Ring  zerbrechen  muss. 
Fiihle  doch  die  starken  Triebe 
Und  des  Herzens  bange  Qual ! 
Also  bitter  schmeckt  die  Liebe 
So  ein  schones  Henkermahl."2 

In  lines  like  these,  Giinther  found  again  the  thread  of  the 
German  love-lyric,  which  had  been  lost  since  the  decay  of 
the  Minnesang;  he  is  the  most  gifted  lyric  poet  in  modern 
German  literature  before  the  appearance  of  Klopstock. 

In  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  first 
permanent  German  opera-house  had  been  established  in 
Hamburg.  It  was  conducted  with  much  tasteless  and  sense- 
less extravagance,  but  it  produced  the  operas  of  musicians 
like  R.  Keiser  (1674-1739)  and  G.  F.  Handel  (1685-1759), 
and  formed  a  centre  for  poets  of  the  school  of  Hofmanns- 
waldau,  who  were  employed  in  the  preparation  and  trans- 
lation of  opera  texts.  But  the  position  of  these  poets  in 
Hamburg  was  by  no  means  secure,  and  their  bitterest  critic, 

1  Ed.  L.  Fulda,  I.e.,  i  (D.N.L.,  38  [1883]);  also  by  J.  Tittmann  in  Deutsche 
Dichter  des  17.  Jahrh.,  6,  Leipzig,  1874,  and  by  B.  Litzmann  in  Reclam's 
Universal-Bibliothek,  1295-96. 

2  D.N.L.,  38,  211. 


242 


THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


C.  Wer- 

nigke, 

1661-1725. 


B.  H. 

Brockes, 

1680-1747. 


F.  von 

Hagedorn, 

1708-54. 


Christian  Wernigke  (I66I-I725)1  an  epigrammatist  with 
something  of  the  genius  of  Logau,  had  little  difficulty  in 
making  them  appear  ridiculous.  The  literary  storms  which 
Wernigke  raised  cleared  the  air,  and  in  Hamburg,  which, 
being  in  close  touch  with  England,  was  readily  influenced  by 
English  ideas,  were  born  two  poets  who  played  an  important 
part  in  the  evolution  of  modern  literature,  Barthold  Heinrich 
Brockes  and  Friedrich  von  Hagedorn.  Brockes  (1680- 1747)2 
began  by  translating  Marino's  epic,  La  strage  degli  innocenti 
(Bethlehemitischer  Kinder-Morel,  1715),  then  imitated  French 
models.  Being,  however,  a  passionate  lover  of  nature,  he 
soon  fell  under  the  spell  of  English  nature-poetry,  such  as 
Pope's  Pastorals  and  Windsor  Forest,  and  in  this  way  was 
the  first  writer  of  his  century  to  establish  close  relations  be- 
tween English  and  German  literature.  In  1740  he  translated 
Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  and  in  1745  Thomson's  Seasons.  His 
original  poetry  is  collected  under  the  fantastic  title  Irdisches 
Vergniigen  in  Gott  (9  parts),  the  first  part  of  which  appeared 
in  1721,  the  last  in  1748.  With  this  work,  of  which  religion 
and  nature  form  the  two  poles,  begins  that  stream  of  didactic 
German  verse  which  reached  its  culmination  about  a  quarter 
of  a  century  later  in  Klopstock's  Messias. 

The  poetry  of  Friedrich  von  Hagedorn  (i  708-54) 3  stands 
on  a  much  higher  plane  than  that  of  Brockes.  He,  too, 
was  strongly  influenced  by  English  literature,  having  spent 
three  years  in  London  as  secretary  to  the  Danish  embassy 
before  settling  down  in  1731  in  his  native  town.  But  Prior 
and  Gay,  rather  than  Pope  and  Thomson,  were  his  masters, 
and  Lafontaine's  Fables  was  his  favourite  reading.  Hagedorn 
was  essentially  a  social  poet ;  unlike  Brockes,  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  religious  enthusiasts ;  melancholy  had  no 
attraction  for  him,  love  no  sentiment : — 

"  Sollt'  auch  ich  durch  Gram  und  Leid 
Meinen  Leib  verzehren 
Und  des  Lebens  Frohlichkeit, 
Weil  ich  leb',  entbehren  ? 
Freunde,  nein  1  es  stehet  fest, 
Meiner  Jugend  Uberrest 
Soil  mir  Lust  gewahren. 

i  Cp.  L.  Fulda,  I.e.,  2,  505  ff. 
a  Cp.  L.  Fulda,  I.e.,  2,  273  ff. 

3  In  Anakrcontiker  und  preussisch  -  patriotische  Lyriker,  ed.  F.  Muncker 
(D.N.L.,  45  [1894]),  i  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  243 

Quellen  tausendfacher  Lust : 
Jugend  !  Schdnheit  !  Liebe  ! 
Ihr  erweckt  in  meiner  Brust 
Schmeichelhafte  Triebe. 
Kein  Genuss  ergriibelt  sich  ; 
Ich  weiss  g'nug,  indem  ich  mich 
Im  Empfinden  iibe." * 

Hagedorn  cannot  be  called  an  Anacreontic  poet  in  the 
narrow  sense  of  the  word,  for  his  ideal  was  rather  Horace 
than  Anacreon.  Nor  is  his  poetry  limited  to  love-songs 
and  drinking-songs ;  after  the  Oden  und  Lieder  (of  which  col- 
lections were  published  in  1742,  1744,  and  1752)  the  most 
popular  of  all  his  works  were  the  Fabeln  und  Erzdhlungen 
(1738).  The  Moralischen  Gedichte^  published  twelve  years 
later,  form  a  continuation  of  this  collection,  and  to  these 
were  added,  in  1753,  Epigrammatische  Gedichte.  With  his 
delicate  self-restraint  and  his  feeling  for  form  and  rhythm, 
Hagedorn  stands  apart  from  the  other  poets  of  his  time; 
indeed,  there  is  something  almost  un-German  in  his  character 
as  a  poet :  he  might  be  regarded  as  a  forerunner  of  Wie- 
land,  and  one  of  a  long  line  of  writers  whose  unconscious 
mission  in  the  economy  of  German  letters  it  is  to  counter- 
balance the  national  tendency  to  revel  in  feelings  and 
emotions.  However  this  may  be,  he  gave  the  dominant 
tone  to  the  German  lyric  from  Gottsched's  defeat  to  the 
love-songs  of  the  Sesenheimer  Liederbuch,  and  even  Klop- 
stock  did  not  escape  his  influence. 

The  Swiss  writer  Albrecht  von  Haller  (i  708-7 7),2  whose  A.  von 
name  is  usually  mentioned  with  Hagedorn's,  is,  as  a  poet,  Ha"er> 
more  akin  to  Brockes ;  he  had  all  Brockes's  religious  enthusi- 
asm for  nature.  Poetry,  however,  had  but  a  small  share  in 
the  life  of  this  remarkable  man,  who,  besides  writing  verses, 
was  the  first  anatomist  and  physiologist  of  his  century. 
His  literary  reputation  rests  upon  the  Versuch  Schweizerischer 
Gedichte  (1732),  the  second  edition  of  which  (1734)  contained 
his  two  most  famous  poems,  Die  Alpen,  the  literary  fruit  of 
a  tour  made  in  1728,  and  Uber  den  Ursprung  des  Ubels. 
Haller's  verse  has  little  of  the  grace  and  smoothness  of 
Hagedorn's,  but  his  poetic  imagination  was  cast  in  a  grander 
mould;  he  felt  more  deeply.  He  describes  the  Alps,  if 

1  D.N.L.,  45,  128. 

a  Gedichte,  ed.  L.   Hirzel,  Frauenfeld,   1882 :  selections  (ed.  A.  Frey)  in 
D.N.L.,  41,  i  [1884]. 


244 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


K.  F. 

Drollinger, 

1688-1742. 


"  Mora- 
lische 
Wochen- 
schriften." 


not  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  later  generation  which  sat  at 
Rousseau's  feet,  at  least  with  a  sense  of  the  moral  effect 
of  beautiful  scenery,  and  with  something  of  that  melancholy 
which  runs  through  English  nature-poetry  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  his  verse  is  not  all  in  a  contemplative  or 
didactic  vein ;  he  could  also  at  times  be  satirical,  and  there 
is  more  genuine  passion  in  a  poem  like  Doris  (1730)  than 
in  any  poetry  of  the  time  except  Giinther's.  In  his  old 
age  Haller  turned  to  the  novel  ( Usong,  1771),  which  he  em- 
ployed mainly  as  a  channel  for  his  political  views.  A  poet 
who  may  be  regarded  as  a  forerunner  of  Haller  is  Karl. 
Friedrich  Drollinger  (born  at  Durlach  in  1688,  died  in 
1742),  whose  Gedichte  were  not  collected  until  1743. 
Drollinger  belongs,  properly  speaking,  to  the  school  of  Canitz 
and  Besser,  but  he  had  more  poetic  inspiration  than  they, 
and,  under  the  influence  of  Pope  and  Brockes,  his  imagination 
succeeded  at  times  in  freeing  itself  from  the  shackles  which 
lay  so  heavily  on  the  majority  of  his  contemporaries. 

Hardly  less  important  than  the  new  spirit  manifest  in  the 
poetry  of  these  writers  was  another  result  of  English  influence, 
namely,  the  weekly  journal  on  the  model  of  the  Tatler, 
Spectator,  and  Guardian.  In  1713  there  had  appeared  in 
Hamburg  a  periodical  called  Der  Verniinfftler,  which  con- 
sisted mainly  of  extracts  translated  from  the  English.  This 
was  the  first  German  imitation  of  the  English  weeklies,  and 
in  a  very  few  years  these  "  Moralischen  Wochenschriften,"  as 
they  were  called,  had  won  a  popularity  which  surpassed  even 
that  of  the  English  weeklies  in  England ;  before  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century  more  than  five  hundred  of  them  were 
published  in  Germany.  In  the  following  chapter  we  shall  see 
how  important  these  papers  were  in  the  literary  battles  of  the 
next  few  decades  ;  it  is  enough  to  mention  here,  as  the  best 
of  them,  the  Discourse  der  Maler,  published  by  Bodmer 
and  Breitinger  in  1721,  and  Der  Patriot,  which  appeared 
in  Hamburg  from  1724  to  1726.  These  journals  were 
inferior  to  their  English  models  as  literature,  but  they  had,  if 
anything,  a  deeper  and  more  far-reaching  influence  on  the 
nation.  They  were  not  merely  the  literary  amusement  of  the 
leisured  classes  as  the  English  weeklies  had  been ;  they  were 
at  the  same  time  organs  for  the  moral  and  literary  education 
of  the  people  as  a  whole. 


245 


CHAPTER    II. 

LEIPZIG    AND    ZURICH    AS    LITERARY    CENTRES. 

IF  any  particular  year  is  to  be  chosen  as  the  starting-point 
for  modern  German  literature — and  for  the  literary  historian 
such  "  boundary  dates "  have  an  importance  which  may  be 
compared  with  that  of  hypotheses  for  the  scientist — this  year 
is  1740.  In  1740  Frederick  the  Great  became  King  of 
Prussia;  in  1740  Maria  Theresa  ascended  the  Austrian 
throne,  and  both  were  rulers  of  significance  for  the  political 
future  of  the  German-speaking  peoples.  In  this  same  year 
took  place  the  great  controversy  between  Gottsched  and  his 
Leipzig  friends  on  the  one  side,  and  the  two  Swiss  literary 
reformers  Bodmer  and  Breitinger  on  the  other.  From  this 
controversy  the  Swiss  party,  the  representatives  of  the 
modern  spirit  in  literature  and  criticism,  came  out  victorious, 
and  between  their  victory  and  the  publication  of  Herder's 
Fragmente  in  1767  lies  the  first  epoch  in  the  development 
of  German  classical  literature. 

Johann  Christoph  Gottsched,1  who  was  born  in  the  vicinity  J.  C.  Gott- 
of  Konigsberg  in  1700,  is  one  of  those  tragic  figures  which 
are  to  be  found  in  all  literatures ;  he  was  a  man  whose 
ambitions  outstripped  his  abilities.  From  theology,  which 
was  his  original  study  at  the  university  in  Konigsberg,  he 
turned  to  literature  and  aesthetics,  ultimately  becoming  him- 
self a  "  Privatdocent "  or  lecturer  in  the  university.  His 
duties  had  hardly  begun  when  he  was  obliged  to  leave 
Konigsberg  to  escape  a  danger  to  which  his  tall  stature 
exposed  him,  that  of  being  forcibly  enrolled  amongst  the 

1  Cp.  G.  Waniek,  Gottsched  und  die  deutsche  Litteratur  seiner  Zeit,  Leipzig, 
1897  ;  J.  Crtiger,  Gottsched,  Bodmer  und  Breitinger  (D.N.L.,  42  [1884]). 


246 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Gottsched's 

Critische 

Dicht- 

kunst, 

1730. 


His 

dramatic 

reforms. 


king's  grenadiers.  This  was  in  1724.  Gottsched  turned 
his  steps  to  Leipzig,  which  already  had  the  reputation  of 
being  the  intellectual  metropolis  of  Germany ;  its  university, 
its  periodical  fairs,  its  large  share  of  the  German  book  trade, 
combined  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  make  this  town  the 
most  important  in  Northern  Europe.  In  Leipzig  Gottsched 
soon  made  a  name  for  himself;  he  was  elected  a  member 
of  the  "  Deutschiibende  Gesellschaft,"  and,  a  few  years  later, 
became,  as  the  "  senior  "  of  this  society,  a  power  in  the  world 
of  letters.  Throwing  himself  without  reserve  into  the  rising 
tide  of  humanitarian  rationalism,  he  worked  zealously  for 
the  spread  of  its  ideas.  In  1725  he  began  the  publication 
of  a  paper  on  the  model  of  the  Spectator,  entitled  Die 
verniinftigen  Tadlerinnen.  But  it  was  not  successful,  and  in 
1727  gave  place  to  Der  Biedermann,  which  met  with  even 
less  favour. 

Gottsched's  first  important  work  was  his  Versuch  einer 
Critischen  Dichtkunst  vor  die  Deutschen  (1730),  which  super- 
seded Opitz's  Buck  von  der  deutschen  Poeterey,  and  gave  the 
deathblow  to  what  still  remained  of  the  second  Silesian 
school.  This  treatise  is  based  essentially  upon  Boileau's  Art 
pottique,  and  subjects  literature  to  a  similar  artificial  classifi- 
cation :  it  sets  up  canons  of  good  taste  and  discusses  the 
respective  parts  which  reason  and  imagination  play  in  poetic 
composition.  But  Gottsched  had  also  learned  from  the 
English  movement  to  lay  emphasis  upon  moral  principles  in 
literature,  and,  above  all,  to  recognise  the  claims  of  nature. 
Poetry  was  not,  he  insisted,  a  purely  mechanical  art  of 
writing  verse,  as  the  older  "  Poetics  "  had  taught ;  it  was  an 
"imitation  of  nature."  He  made  the  mistake,  however,  of 
trying  to  reconcile  this  idea  with  what  he  had  learnt  from 
Boileau ;  he  invented  fresh  rules,  and  these  rules  naturally 
led  back  to  the  mechanical  methods  of  writing  verse  which 
he  was  endeavouring  to  avoid.  The  watchword  "nature" 
was  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  effect  a  reform  in  literature ; 
and  in  essentials  Gottsched's  work  was  no  advance  upon  its 
French  model. 

The  branch  of  literature  which  derived  most  benefit 
from  his  reforms  was  the  drama.  He  found  drama  and 
theatre  divorced,  and  united  them  again.  In  conjunction 
with  the  troupe  of  actors  at  whose  head  stood  Johann 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  247 

Neuber  and  his  more  talented  wife,  Karoline  (1697-1 760), x  Karoline 
Gottsched  established  the  masterpieces  of  the  French  classical 
drama  on  the  German  stage;  he  abolished  bombast  and 
buffoonery,  and  forbade  the  actors  to  take  liberties  with  the 
texts  they  had  to  speak.  The  theatre  was  thus  at  once  made 
attractive  to  the  educated  classes.  It  is  true,  as  Lessing 
said,  that  Gottsched  had  no  understanding  for  what  was 
good  in  the  popular  drama ;  his  attempt  to  create  a 
German  drama  on  French  lines  was  little  in  conformity  with 
the  national  spirit.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  a  reform  of  any 
other  kind  would  at  this  period  have  been  effective.  It  was 
time  enough  in  the  next  generation  for  the  German  drama, 
with  the  help  of  English  models,  to  find  a  natural  course 
of  development ;  in  Gottsched's  time  it  was  chiefly  important 
that  the  theatre,  which  had  hitherto  had  little  to  do  with 
literature,  should  be  brought  into  touch  with  it,  and  the 
direct  means  of  attaining  this  end  was  to  imitate  the  most 
polished  nation  in  Europe.  Gottsched,  however,  was  at  one 
with  the  English  in  many  things  :  he  claimed  with  them  that 
the  drama  must  be  "  recht  wahrscheinlich,"  and  the  costumes 
historically  correct ;  even  his  adherence  to  the  unities  was  in 
keeping  with  his  realism. 

The  reformed  theatre  could  not  subsist  without  plays,  and 
Gottsched  and  his  friends  set  to  work  to  provide  it  with  a 
repertory  which  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  of  translations. 
Thus    arose    the   Deutsche  Schaubiihne  nach   den  Regeln  der  The 
alien    Griechen    und  Romer  eingerichtet  (6   vols.,    1740-45). 
One  of  the  most  capable  contributors  to  this  collection  of  buhne, 
plays  was  Gottsched's  wife,  Luise  Adelgunde  (»/<?  Kulmus,   I74°-45- 
1713-62),    to   whom   the   translation    of   the   comedies   was 
mainly  intrusted ;   her  two  or  three  original  pieces  z  show  a 
dramatic  talent  to  which  her  husband's  famous  tragedy  Der 
sterbende    Cato,    produced    in    1731,   cannot    pretend.      Der  Derster- 
sterbende  Cato  is  essentially  a  translation   of  J.   Deschamps'  bende  Cato> 
Caton  tfUtique  (1715),  but  the  end  is  adapted  from  Addison's 
play  on   the  same  subject,  which  was  more  to  Gottsched's 
liking.     Only  about  one-tenth  of  the  whole  is  original.     The 
sententiousness  of  the  play  and  one  or  two  effective  scenes 

1  Cp.   F.  J.  von  Reden-Esbeck,  Karoline  Neuber  und  ihre  Zeitgenossen, 
Leipzig,  1 88 1. 

2  Das  Testament,  in  J.  Crtiger,  I.e.,  249  ff.    Cp.  P.  Schlenther,  Frau  Gottsched 
und  die  burgerliche  Kombdie,  Berlin,  1886. 


248 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


J.  J.  Brei- 

linger, 

1701-76. 


caught  the  taste  of  the  time,  and  for  the  next  twenty  years 
Der  sterbende  Cato  was  the  most  popular  tragedy  on  the 
German  stage. 

The  success  of  his  theatrical  reforms,  the  prosperity  of  the 
"German  Society"  under  his  presidentship,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  new  literary  journal,  the  Beytrcige  zur  critischen 
Historic  der  deutschen  Sprache,  Poesie  und  Beredtsamkeit 
(1732-44),  had  gradually  brought  Gottsched's  authority  to 
a  culmination.  This  was  about  1738,  when  the  first 
mutterings  of  the  coming  storm  were  beginning  to  make 
themselves  heard.  The  leaders  of  the  Swiss  revolt  against 
Gottsched,  with  which  a  new  movement  in  German  literature 
J.  Bodmer,  was  inaugurated,  were  two  professors  of  Zurich,  Jakob  Bodmer 
1698-1783.  ^698-1783)  and  Johann  Jakob  Breitinger  (1701-76).  They 
were  scholars  rather  than  men  of  letters,  but  they  had  both 
more  understanding  for  poetry  than  Gottsched.  Their  joint 
activity  began  in  1721,  when  they  edited  the  Discourse  der 
Mahler?-  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  one  of  the  first  German 
weeklies  in  imitation  of  the  Spectator.  In  this  journal  the 
tendency  to  favour  English  in  preference  to  French  literature  is 
unmistakable.  Bodmer,  who,  as  far  as  literature  is  concerned, 
was  the  more  important  writer,  published  in  1732  a  prose 
translation  of  Paradise  Lost,  which  awakened  the  suspicions 
of  Gottsched.  It  was  not,  however,  until  six  years  later  that 
serious  differences  began  to  arise  between  Leipzig  and  Zurich, 
and  with  the  appearance  of  Breitinger's  Critische  Dichtkunst 
(1739)  and  Bodmer's  Critische  Abhandlung  von  dem  IVunder- 
baren  in  der  Poesie  (1740),  the  storm  finally  broke. 

Bodmer  began  the  preface  which  he  wrote  to  Breitinger's 
Critische  Dichtkunst  with  the  words,  "  Ein  gewisser  Kunst- 
richter  hat  angemercket,  dass  die  Natur  vor  der  Kunst 
gewesen,  dass  die  besten  Schriften  nicht  von  den  Regeln  ent- 
standen  seyn,  sondern  hingegen  die  Regeln  von  den  Schriften 
hergeholet  worden." 2  Here  was  one  of  the  vital  differences 
between  Gottsched  and  the  Swiss  party :  Gottsched's  object 

1  Ed.  T.  Vetter,  i,  Frauenfeld,  1891 ;  a  selection  by  J.  Criiger,  I.e.,  i  ff. 
On  Bodmer,  cp.  also  the  Denkschrift  zu  seinem  aoo.  Gcburtstag,  Zurich,  1900. 

3  The  "  Kunstrichter  "  is  the  Abb6  Du  Bos  (1670-1742),  against  whom 
Bodmer's  preface  is  in  part  directed,  but  he  and  Breitinger  were  substantially 
in  agreement  with  the  statement  quoted.  Cp.  F.  Braitmaier,  Geschicfite  der 
poetischen  Theorie  und  Kritik  von  den  Diskursen  der  Maler  bis  auf  Lessing, 
Leipzig,  1888,  i,  156  f.,  and  K.  Servaes,  Die  Poetik  Gottscheds  und  der  Sckweizer 
(Quellen  und  Forschungen,  60),  Strassburg,  1887. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  249 

was  to  reform  literature  from  without  by  imposing  upon  it  rules 
invented  by  Aristotle  and  the  French  theorists ;  his  opponents, 
on  the  other  hand,  endeavoured  to  reform  it  from  within,  by 
studying  the  nature  of  poetic  creation,  by  investigating  how 
poetry  arose  in  the  soul  of  the  poet,  and  by  analysing  the 
impression  it  left  upon  the  reader.  The  advance  made  by 
Bodmer  and  Breitinger  was  that  they  laid  chief  stress  upon 
the  imagination  ;  their  poetic  creed  afforded  more  room  for 
feeling,  for  enthusiasm,  for  genius.  Gottsched,  for  his  part, 
clung  doggedly  to  the  principle  that  poetry  must  be  a 
product  of  reason  acting  in  conscious  recognition  of  certain 
laws.  Neither  the  Critische  Dichtkunst  nor  the  Abhandlung 
von  dem  Wunderbaren  was  written  in  a  spirit  of  direct  polemic 
against  Gottsched,  but  the  latter's  vanity  was  hurt  to  find  that 
principles  should  be  defended  which  were  in  antagonism  to  his 
own,  and  he  responded  to  the  challenge  with  considerable 
bitterness.  In  Bodmer's  next  pamphlet,  Betrachtungen  iiber  die 
poetischen  Gemdlde  der  Dichter  (1741),  the  Swiss  critic  showed 
that  he,  too,  could  be  bitter.  The  controversy  was  then  taken 
up  by  the  henchmen  on  both  sides;  satire,  invective,  every 
weapon  of  literary  warfare  was  called  into  requisition,  and  the 
battle  raged  fiercely  in  the  periodical  literature  of  the  time. 

Gottsched's  defeat  was  inevitable  :  one  might  say  it  was  Gottsched's 
due  as  much  to  the  rapidly  advancing  spirit  of  the  age  as  to  defeat- 
the  attacks  of  his  adversaries.  In  the  course  of  the  next  few 
years  all  his  friends  fell  away  from  him ;  Neuber's  troupe 
ridiculed  him  on  the  stage  in  1741  as  "der  Tadler,"  and  in 
1748  the  first  three  cantos  of  Klopstock's  Messias — the  best 
exemplification  of  the  Swiss  theories  of  poetry  —  appeared 
in  the  Bremer  Beytrdge,  the  organ  of  a  group  of  writers 
who  had  once  been  Gottsched's  faithful  followers.  There 
is  not  a  more  piteous  incident  in  the  history  of  literary  criti- 
cism than  that  of  Gottsched's  setting  up  in  1751  the  tedious 
epic  Hermann  oder  das  befreyte  Deutschland^  by  his  disciple 
C.  O.  von  Schonaich  (1725-1807),  as  the  crowning  achieve- 
ment of  German  literature.  Although  for  the  last  twenty 
years  of  his  life — he  lived  until  the  end  of  1766,  the  year 
after  Goethe  came  to  study  in  Leipzig — Gottsched  saw  his 
reputation  dwindling  away,  he  was  not  idle.  In  1748  he 
published  a  Grundlegung  einer  deutschen  Sprachkunst^  which 
did  more  solid  service  for  German  prose  and  the  spread  of 


250 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


The 
Bremer 
Beytrage, 
1744-48. 


J.E. 

Schlegel, 

1719-49. 


a  correct  High  German  than  his  Critische  Dichtkunst  had 
done  for  German  poetry ;  he  studied,  collected,  and  trans- 
lated monuments  of  old  German  literature,  and,  under  the 
title  Nothiger  Vorrath  zur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  dramati- 
schen  Dichtkunst  (1757-65),  he  published  a  collection  of 
old  German  dramas,  which  is  still  a  valuable  mine  for  the 
literary  historian. 

The  attacks  of  his  Swiss  adversaries  had  not  disconcerted 
Gottsched  as  much  as  might  have  been  expected,  but  it 
went  to  his  heart  when  a  number  of  friends  in  Leipzig, 
writers  who  had  learned  their  art  at  his  feet,  began  to  fall 
away.  These  younger  men  grew  dissatisfied  with  the  official 
organ  of  the  party,  the  Belustigungen  des  Verstandes  und 
Witzes,  which  had  appeared  since  1741  under  the  editorship 
of  J.  J.  Schwabe  (1714-84),  and  they  resolved  to  found  a  new 
journal  upon  more  liberal  lines :  thus  arose  the  Neue  Bey- 
trdge  zum  Vergnugen  des  Verstandes  und  Witzesy  usually  called, 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  published  in  Bremen,  the  Bremer 
Beytrdge  (1744-48).  The  actual  founders  of  the  Beytrage?- 
K.  C.  Gartner  (1712-91),  J.  A.  Cramer  (1723-88),  and  J. 
Adolf  Schlegel  (1721-93),  father  of  the  two  brothers  Schlegel 
who  were  to  play  so  important  a  part  in  the  literature  of  the 
next  generation,  were  men  of  small  poetic  talent.  But  Adolf 
Schlegel's  brother,  Johann  Elias  Schlegel  (1719-49),  was  a 
writer  of  some  genius,  and  the  ablest  dramatist  that  the 
Leipzig  school  produced.  His  tragedies,  Herrmann  (1743) 
and  Canut  (1747),  his  comedies,  Die  stumme  Schonheit  (1747) 
and  Der  Triumph  der  guten  Frauen  (1748),  are  among  the 
best  that  were  to  be  seen  on  the  German  stage  before  Lessing. 
Instead  of  imitating  the  French  tragedy,  like  Gottsched, 
Elias  Schlegel  went  to  the  Greeks  for  his  models ;  and  in 
his  theoretical  writings,2  of  which  the  chief  is  Gedanken  zur 
Aufnahme  des  ddnischen  Theaters  (1747),  he  paved  the  way 
for  Lessing.  He  also  wrote  with  appreciation  of  Shakespeare, 
whose  Julius  Casar  had  shortly  before  (1741)  been  translated 
into  German  by  K.  W.  von  Borck,  the  Prussian  Ambassador 
in  London.  In  Denmark,  whither  he  had  gone  in  1743  as 

1  Bremer  Beitrager,  edited  by  F.  Muncker,  2  vols.  (D.N.L.,  43,  44  [1899]); 
selections  from  Cramer  and  J.  E.  Schlegel,  2,  63  ff.  and  101  ff. 

3  /.  E.  Schlegels  dsthetische  vnd  dramaturgische  Schriften,  ed.  J.  von 
Antoniewicz  (Deutsche  Litteraturdenkmale  des  18.  und  19.  Jahrh.,  26),  Heil- 
bronn,  1887. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  251 

secretary  to  the  Saxon  embassy,  Schlegel  came  into  personal 
touch  with  the  Moliere  of  the  North,  Ludwig  Holberg. 
About  this  time,  it  may  be  noted,  Holberg's  comedies  were 
even  more  popular  on  the  German  stage  than  Moliere's,  and 
his  influence  is  conspicuous  on  an  excellent  comedy  of  Ham- 
burg life,  Der  Bookesbeutel  (1742),  by  Hinrich  Borkenstein,1  DerBookes- 
which,  in  its  rough  humour  and  satire,  throws  the  drama  of  *eutei, 

1742. 

the  Saxon  school  completely  into  the  shade.  Hamburg  still 
remained  the  gate  by  which  English  literature  found  its  way 
into  Germany :  J.  A.  Ebert,  a  Hamburg  contributor  to  the 
£  renter  Beytrdge  (1723-95),  translated,  in  1751,  Young's 
Night  Thoughts^  a  poem  which  had  a  widespread  influence 
on  the  literature  of  the  following  decades.  J.  F.  W.  Zacharia  J.  F.  w. 
(1726-77),  another  poet  of  this  group,  is  best  remembered  Zacharia, 
by  his  comic  epic  Der  Renommiste  (1744)^  an  imitation  of 
Boileau's  Lutrin  and  Pope's  Rape  of  the  Lock.  The  "  Renom- 
mist "  is  a  swaggering  student  who  comes  from  the  outer 
darkness  of  Jena  to  Leipzig,  the  metropolis  of  fashion  and 
good  taste ;  his  experiences  and  adventures  give  a  good  idea 
of  life  in  Leipzig  before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

One  of  the  most  gifted  of  the  "  Bremer  Beitrager "  was  G.  W. 

Gottlieb  Wilhelm  Rabener,  born  at  Wachau  near  Leipzig  in   Rabener 

*•    °        1714-71. 
1714,  and  educated  at  the  school  of  St  Afra  in   Meissen. 

Almost  all  the  best  intellect  of  Saxony  at  this  time  passed 
through  one  or  other  of  the  three  great  "  Fiirstenschulen " 
founded  at  the  Reformation  from  the  wealth  of  demolished 
monasteries  in  Meissen,  Pforta,  and  Grimma.  Adolf  and 
Elias  Schlegel,  and,  a  little  later,  Klopstock,  were  educated  at 
Pforta ;  Cramer  came  from  Grimma,  and  Gartner,  Rabener, 
Gellert,  and  Lessing  from  Meissen.  Rabener  did  not  make 
a  profession  of  literature,  but  only  devoted  his  leisure  to  it : 
he  was  an  inspector  of  revenues  in  Dresden,  where  he  died 
in  1771.  His  satires  are  probably  the  least  bitter  that  were 
ever  written ;  satire  in  his  eyes  was  little  more  than  good- 
natured  irony.  In  the  preface  (  Vorbericht  vom  Misbrauche 
der  Satire)  to  his  Sammlung  satirischer  Schriften  (i75i-55),3 
Rabener  states  his  principles : — 

1  Reprinted  in  the  Litteraturdenkmale,  56,  57,  Leipzig,  1896. 

2  Cp.  F,  Muncker,  I.e.,  2,  243  ff. 

3  A  selection  ed.  A.  Holder  in  Hendel's  Bibliothek  der  Gesamtlitteratvr  ties 
In-  und  Auslandes,  No.  217-219.     Cp.  Muncker,  I.e.,  2,  i  ff. 


252 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


C.  L. 

Liscow, 
1701-60. 


A.  G. 

Kastner, 
1719-1800. 


C.  F. 

Gellert, 
1715-69. 


"  Wer  den  Namen  eines  Satirenschreibers  verdienen  will,  dessen 
Herz  muss  redlich  seyn.  Er  muss  die  Tugend,  die  er  andre  lehrt, 
fur  den  einzigen  Grund  des  wahren  Gliicks  halten.  Das  ehrwiir- 
dige  der  Religion  muss  seine  ganze  Seele  erfullen.  Nach  der 
Religion  muss  ihm  der  Thron  des  Fursten,  und  das  Ansehen  der 
Obern  das  Heiligste  seyn.  .  .  .  Er  muss  die  Welt  und  das  gantze 
Hertz  der  Menschen,  aber  vor  alien  Dingen  muss  er  sich  selbst 
kennen.  Er  muss  liebreich  seyn,  wenn  er  bitter  ist"  (p.  9  ff.) 

The  satire  inspired  by  such  a  spirit  can  obviously  not  rise 
far  above  the  commonplace  interests  of  provincial  life;  at 
the  same  time,  Rabener  was  probably  shrewd  enough  to 
recognise  that  it  would  not  have  been  politic  to  touch  on 
public  affairs  in  the  Saxony  of  Graf  Briihl.  His  work  is 
characterised  by  a  kindly  ironical  humour  which  makes  it 
more  readable  to-day  than  any  other  production  of  the 
Saxon  school,  Gellert's  Fables  excepted.  He  did  not  at- 
tempt to  express  himself  in  verse,  but  his  prose  is  excellent 
and  compares  favourably  with  that  of  a  considerably  later  age. 

Although  Rabener  was  too  good-natured  to  give  much  cause 
for  offence,  there  were  two  of  his  contemporaries  who  were  less 
scrupulous.  C.  L.  Liscow  (1701-60),  who  published  in  1739 
a  Sammlung  satyr ischer  und  ernsthafter  Schriften^  has  bitter- 
ness enough  at  his  command,  but  his  satire  often  loses  its 
point  by  being  diffuse ;  moreover,  his  attacks  are  for  the 
most  part  directed  against  obscure  literati,  and  soon  ceased 
to  have  an  actual  interest.  A.  G.  Kastner  (i7i9-i8oo),2 
Professor  of  Mathematics  in  Gottingen,  yielded  to  the 
temptation,  which  Gottsched's  school  encouraged,  of  writing 
poetry  on  mathematical  principles,  but  he  stands  out  as  the 
most  brilliant  epigrammatist — not  excepting  Lessing — of  his 
time;  his  witty  and  stinging  verses  are  forerunners  of  the 
Xenien.  Kastner's  Vermischte  Schriften  appeared  in  two 
volumes  in  1755  and  1772. 

The  most  popular  writer  of  the  Leipzig  circle,  and  perhaps 
the  most  universally  popular  in  the  history  of  German  letters, 
was  Christian  Fiirchtegott  Gellert.  Gellert  was  born  near 
Freiberg  in  Saxony  in  1715,  and  died  in  Leipzig  in  1769. 
His  success  as  a  student  in  Leipzig  was  sufficient  to  justify 
a  university  career ;  in  1745  he  became  "  Privatdocent,"  and 

1  Cp.  F.  Muncker,  I.e.,  2,  49  ff.  ;  selections  by  A.  Holder,  Halle,  1901. 

2  J.  Minor,  b'abeldichter,  Satiriker  und  Popularphilosophen  des  18.  Jahr- 
hunderls  (D.N.L.,  73  [1884]),  83  £ 


CHAP.  II.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  253 

in  1751  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Leipzig. 
The  enthusiasm  of  his  students  knew  no  bounds,  his  lectures 
being  sometimes  attended  by  an  audience  of  four  hundred ; 
and  outside  the  university  his  popularity  was  even  greater. 
Gellert  was  essentially  a  man  of  the  people  and  beloved  by 
the  people ;  he  had  no  higher  ambition  than  that  all  classes 
should  be  able  to  appreciate  his  writings. 

"  Mein  grosster  Ehrgeiz,"  he  wrote  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  besteht 
darinn,  dass  ich  den  Verniinftigen  dienen  und  gefallen  will,  und 
nicht  den  Gelehrten  im  engen  Verstande.  Ein  kluges  Frauen- 
zimmer  gilt  mir  mehr,  als  eine  gelehrte  Zeitung  und  der  niedrigste 
Mann  von  gesundem  Verstande  ist  mir  wiirdig  genug,  seine 
Aufmerksamkeit  zu  suchen,  sein  Vergntigen  zu  befdrdern,  und  ihm 
in  einem  leicht  zu  behaltenden  Ausdrucke  gute  Wahrheiten  zu 
sagen,  und  edle  Empfindungen  in  seiner  Seele  rege  zu  machen." l 

This  was  the  secret  of  his  popularity ;  it  also  explains  his 
poetry.  In  Gellert's  eyes,  literature  had  only  a  right  to  exist 
in  so  far  as  it  furthered  moral  ends,  and  he  wrote  accordingly. 
His  comedies,  of  which  Das  Loos  in  der  Lotterie  (1747)  is  the 
best,  and  his  pastorals  are  in  the  style  of  Gottsched's  school ; 
the  character-drawing  occasionally  shows  some  skill,  but  the 
dialogue  is  unnatural  and  the  plots  are  completely  without 
dramatic  significance.  More  important  is  Gellert's  only 
novel,  Leben  der  Schwedischen  Grdfinn  von  G  *  *  *  (1747-48), 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  social  novel  in  German 
literature.  It  is  a  remarkable  blending  of  the  type  of  novel  Grqfinn, 
cultivated  by  Lohenstein — that  is  to  say,  the  final  stage  in  *747-48- 
the  decay  of  medieval  romance — with  the  character  novel  of 
modern  literature.  Gellert's  professed  model  was  Pamela, 
but  he  preferred  the  adventures  and  coincidences,  the 
heartrending  experiences  and  immoralities  of  the  older 
fiction  to  Richardson's  simplicity.  From  the  English  novelist, 
for  whom  he  had  unlimited  admiration,  Gellert  at  least  learned 
to  make  commonplace  men  and  women  interesting,  and  it 
is  needless  to  say  that  the  moralising  tone  of  Richardson 
appealed  strongly  to  him ;  the  sententious  preaching  of  the 
Schwedische  Grdfinn  forms  a  ludicrous  contrast  to  the  im- 
proprieties of  the  narrative.  As  a  letter -writer,  Gellert  ex- 
erted a  more  lasting  influence  than  as  a  novelist.  In  1751 
he  published  a  collection  of  letters  (Briefe,  nebst  einer 
1  Quoted  by  J.  A.  Cramer,  Gellerts  Leben,  Leipzig,  1774,  57. 


254  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

praktischen  Abhandlung  von  dem  guten  Geschmacke  in  Briefen) 
which  remained  recognised  models  of  epistolary  style  for  more 
than  twenty  years. 

His  reputation  now  rests  mainly  upon  his  popular  Fabeln 

Fabelnund  und  Erzdhlungen  (1746,  I748),1  in  which  the  verses,  although 
wanting  in  the  higher  qualities  of  poetic  writing,  charm  by 

1746, 1748.  their  simplicity.  The  naive  manner  in  which  Gellert  tells 
his  stories,  cloaks  the  mediocrity  of  his  poetic  talent ;  in- 
deed, he  succeeds  by  his  very  artlessness  where  a  greater 
poet  might  have  failed.  The  sources  of  his  fables  are 
extremely  varied,  Hagedorn  and  Lafontaine  being  obviously 
the  models.  But  Gellert  must  at  least  be  given  credit  for 
originality ;  even  in  well  -  worn  anecdotes  he  has  an  eye 
for  didactic  possibilities  which  escaped  his  predecessors, 
and  his  point  of  view  is  invariably  his  own.  Hardly  less 
popular  in  their  day  than  the  Fabeln  und  Erzahlungen  were 
the  Geistlichen  Oden  und  Lieder  (1757),  but  the  absence  of 
real  poetic  inspiration  naturally  makes  itself  more  felt  in 
verses  of  this  nature.  The  Fables  remain  Gellert's  chief  work, 
and,  together  with  Rabener's  satires,  they  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  most  genuinely  "  home-grown  "  products  of  the 
Saxon  school.  The  eighteenth  century  was  the  golden  age 
of  the  fable  in  European  literature,  and  Gellert  at  once 
became  the  model  for  his  contemporaries  and  successors. 
His  chief  follower  was  M.  G.  Lichtwer  (1719-83),  whose 
jfcsopische  Fabeln  appeared  in  1748,  and  are  hardly  inferior 
to  those  of  his  master.  Independently  of  Gellert,  a  Swiss 
writer,  J.  L.  Meyer  von  Knonau  (1705-85),  published  in  1744 
a  collection  of  Neue  Fabeln,  which  show  a  close  observation 
of  nature;  while  in  the  Fabeln  (1783)  of  the  Alsatian  G.  K. 
Pfeffel  (1736-1809),  this  literary  genre  begins  to  show  traces 
of  decay.2 

The  contributors  to  the  Bremer  Beitrage  were  not  re- 
formers ;  they  only  put  into  practice  the  better  elements 
in  Gottsched's  reforms,  avoiding  his  extremes.  They  sought 
their  models,  with  preference,  in  French  literature,  and  success 
meant  to  them  a  close  imitation  of  those  models,  or,  as  in 
the  case  of  Rabener  and  Gellert,  it  was  won  in  byways  which 

1  F.  Muncker,  I.e.,  i ;  also  ed.  by  K.  Biedermann  in  the  Bibl.  d.  deutschen 
Nationallitt.  des  18.  und  19.  Jahrhunderts,  30,  Leipzig,  1871. 

2  Cp.  J.  Minor,  Fabeldichter  (D.N.L.,  73  [1884]);  K.  Goedeke,  Grundrisz 
xur  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Dichtvng,  2nd  ed. ,  4,  44  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  255 

were  of  little  consequence  for  the  future  development  of 
German  literature.  Their  poetry  was,  in  general,  inspired 
by  reason  rather  than  imagination  ;  they  knew  nothing  of  that 
fervid  enthusiasm  for  nature  which  breathes  from  Haller's 
Swiss  poems.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  difficult 
to  see  that  the  publication  of  an  epic  such  as  the  Messias, 
the  first  three  cantos  of  which  appeared  in  the  Bremer 
Beytrdge  in  the  spring  of  1748,  must  necessarily  have  been 
disastrous  to  the  journal.  With  Klopstock's  appearance 
German  literature  took  a  sudden  leap  forward,  and  the 
"  Bremer  Beitrager "  seemed  overnight  to  have  been  left 
behind. 


256 


CHAPTER    III. 


I.  J.  Pyra, 

I7IS-44, 
and  S.  G. 
Lange, 
1711-81. 


THE   PRUSSIAN    POETS  J     KLOPSTOCK. 

DURING  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  University 
of  Halle  was  the  centre  from  which  emanated  almost  every 
new  movement  in  German  thought.  At  its  foundation  in 
1694,  it  was  the  fountain-head  of  German  Pietism;  in  1707, 
Christian  von  Wolff  made  it  the  focus  of  German  rationalism, 
and  again,  between  1735  and  1740,  A.  G.  Baumgarten 
(1714-62),  Wolff's  disciple,  taught  in  Halle,  and,  under  the 
stimulus  of  Breitinger's  poetic  theories,  laid  the  foundation 
of  a  new  philosophic  science,  aesthetics.  His  work  on  this 
subject,  ALsthetica,  did  not,  it  is  true,  begin  to  appear 
until  1750,  when  Baumgarten  had  exchanged  his  chair  in 
Halle  for  one  in  Frankfort -on -the -Oder;  but  in  his  lectures 
at  Halle  he  naturally  favoured  the  Swiss  party  rather  than 
Gottsched.  It  is  thus  not  surprising  that  the  younger  literary 
talents  of  the  university  should  also  have  been  partisans  of 
Bodmer  and  Breitinger. 

I.  J.  Pyra  (1715-44)  and  S.  G.  Lange  (1711-81),  who  were 
both  students  in  Halle  in  1737,  came  forward  with  Freund- 
schaftliche  Lieder^  which  they  wrote  together,  as  champions  of 
a  rhymeless  poetry  in  antique  metres,  and  were  thus  direct 
forerunners  of  Klopstock.  A  year  or  two  later,  it  was  again 
three  students  of  Halle,  Gleim,  Uz,  and  Gotz,  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  Anacreontic  or  Prussian  school  of  poetry. 
Anacreontic  poetry  is  a  specifically  eighteenth-century  type 
of  literature,  and  appeals  as  little  as  the  fable  to  modern 
tastes.  Hagedorn  had  been  the  first  to  naturalise  it  in  Ger- 
many, and  in  the  hands  of  the  Prussian  school  it  became 
for  a  time  the  most  characteristic  form  of  the  lyric.  As 

1  Ed.  A.  Sauer  (Litteraturdcnkmale,  22),  Heilbronn,  1885. 


CHAP.  III.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  257 

long  as  the  German  lyric  was  restricted  to  imitations  of 
Anacreon,  there  was  naturally  little  room  for  the  poetry  of 
feeling  which  Giinther  had  awakened  to  new  life ;  moreover, 
the  main  source  of  poetic  inspiration  in  this  age  was  neither 
sentiment  nor  nature,  but  the  majestic  figure  of  Frederick  the 
Great. 

J.  W.  L.  Gleim,1  born  in  1719,  was  a  native  of  Thuringia.  J.  W.  L. 
After  a  few  years,  first  as  a  student  in  Halle  and  then  in  ^J 
Berlin,  he  settled  in  Halberstadt  as  secretary  to  the  cathe- 
dral chapter,  later  on  becoming  canon,  and  here  he  re- 
mained until  the  close  of  his  long  life  in  1803.  As  a  poet, 
Gleim  did  not  rise  above  mediocrity,  but  he  stood  on  an 
intimate  footing  with  the  entire  literary  world,  from  Ewald 
von  Kleist  to  Heinrich  von  Kleist,  and  thus  his  reputation 
was  assured,  irrespective  of  his  talents.  "  Vater  Gleim " 
was  always  ready  with  assistance  for  all  who  turned  to  him, 
and  no  one  weighed  too  carefully  his  uninspired  verses. 
His  first  publication,  Versuch  in  scherzhaften  Liedern  (1744), 
was  the  beginning  of  endless  Anacreontic  imitations,  and  the 
famous  Preussischen  Kriegslieder  von  einem  Grenadier  (1758) 
made  his  reputation  once  and  for  all.  The  best  thing  about 
these  war-songs,  which  nowadays  give  an  impression  of 
monotony,  was  their  patriotic  enthusiasm  ;  and  this  enthusi- 
asm commended  them  to  a  public  which  had  no  thoughts  for 
their  merits  as  poetry.  Gleim  was  virtually  the  poet  of  the 
Preussischen  Kriegslieder  and  nothing  else;  his  Fabeln  (1756) 
could  not  compare  with  Gellert's,  and  his  oriental  epic, 
Halladat)  oder  das  rothe  Buck  (1774),  was  hardly  more 
successful  than  were  his  imitations  of  the  Minnesingers. 

A  sincerer  and  more  gifted  poet  than  Gleim  was  Johann  J.  P.  Uz, 
Peter    Uz   (if2o-g6),2   born    in   Ansbach,    the    second    of  I72°-96- 
the  group  of  Anacreontic  poets.     In  Uz's  Lyrische  Gedichte 
(1749)  the  German  Anacreontic  is  to  be  seen  at  its  best. 
Like   Hagedorn,   Uz  had  studied  the  lyric    of  other   lands 
industriously;    he   had  learned   not  only  from   Horace,   but 
from  the  French  poets.      There  is  thus  a  Latin  polish  on 
his   verses,    which    balances    the   inevitable    triviality   of  his 

1  Anakreontiker  vnd  preursisc h  - patrioti sc ht  Lyriker,  ed.  F.  Muncker,  i 
(D.N.L.,  45,  i  [1894]),  177  ff. ;  the  Preussischen  Kriegslieder  are  edited  by  A. 
Sauer  in  the  Littcraturdenkm.,  4,  Heilbronn,  1882. 

a  Sdmtliche  Poetische  Werke,  ed.  A.  Sauer  (Litteraturdenkm.,  33-38),  Stutt- 
gart, 1890.  Cp.  F.  Muncker,  I.e.,  2,  3  ff. 

R 


258  THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

themes.  In  his  philosophic  poems,  of  which  Theodicte 
(1755)  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  characteristic,  Uz  might 
be  claimed  as  a  direct  predecessor  of  Schiller.  Der  Sieg  des 
Liebesgottes  (1755),  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  comic  epic  in 
which  the  poet  follows,  not  unsuccessfully,  in  Zacharia's  foot- 
J.  N.  Gotz,  steps.  J.  N.  Gotz  (1721-81),  a  native  of  Worms,  was  the 
1721-81.  ]east  gifte(j  of  the  circie  and  essentially  a  writer  of  "occa- 
sional "  verses.  His  familiarity  with  Latin  and  French 
literature  was  no  less  extensive  than  that  of  his  friend  Uz, 
but  he  wrote  easily  and  brought  the  frivolous  and  insincere 
side  of  the  Anacreontic  into  prominence. 

It  seems  almost  incongruous  to  include  the  unhappy 
E.  c.  von  Prussian  officer,  Ewald  Christian  von  Kleist  (I7I5-59),1 
m  ^e  8rouP  °f  Anacreontic  singers ;  Kleist's  heartfelt 
poetry  is  no  less  strange  in  such  surroundings  than  was 
the  poet  himself  in  the  military  society  of  Potsdam.  It  was, 
however,  through  Gleim's  influence  and  friendship  that  Kleist 
became  a  poet,  Gleim  being  thus  the  link  between  the  literary 
movement,  which  originated  in  Halle,  and  the  poets  of 
the  Prussian  capital.  Ewald  von  Kleist  is  the  most  modern 
poet  of  the  Frederician  age  ;  he  is  filled  with  a  passionate 
love  for  nature,  and  a  melancholy  lies  upon  his  poetry 
which  was  alien  to  the  spirit  of  the  "  Aufklarung."  Der 
Der  Friihling,  the  fragment  of  a  descriptive  poem  suggested  by 

1749. tnSt  Thomson's  Seasons — which  Brockes  had  translated  four  years 
earlier — appeared  in  1749,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  Kleist's 
fame.  The  charm  of  his  poetry  lies  in  the  warmth  with 
which  nature's  beauties  are  described ;  spring  appears  to  the 
poet  as  a  new  revelation. 

"  Empfang  mich,  schattichter  Hain,  voll  holier  griiner  Gewolbe  ! 
Empfang  mich  !     Fiille  mil  Ruh*  und  holder  Wehmuth  die  Seele  ! 
Ftihr  mich  in  Gangen  voll  Nacht  zum  glanzenden  Throne  der  Tugend, 
Der  um  sich  die  Schatten  erhellt !     Lehr  mich  den  Widerhall  reizen 
Zum  Ruhm  verjiingter  Natur  !     Und  Ihr,  Ihr  lachenden  Wiesen, 
Ihr  holde  Thaler  voll  Rosen,  von  lauten  Bachen  durchirret, 
Mit  Euren  Diiften  will  ich  in  mich  Zufriedenheit  ziehen 
Und,  wenn  Aurora  Euch  weckt,  mit  ihren  Strahlen  sie  trinken." 2 

These  are  the  opening  lines   of  a  poem  which  may  be  re- 
garded as  filling  the  gap  between  the  older  nature-poetry  of 

1  Werke,  ed.  A.  Sauer,  3  vols.,  Berlin  [1881-82].     Cp.  F.  Muncker,  I.e.,  2, 
103  ff. 

2  From  the  edition  of  1756  (A.  Sauer.  i,  206  f.) 


CHAP.  III.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  259 

Brockes  and  Haller,  and  the  fervid  poetry  of  Klop- 
stock  and  the  writers  who  came  after  him.  The  happiest 
years  of  Kleist's  life  were  1757  and  1758,  when  he  came 
into  touch  with  the  literary  circles  of  Leipzig,  and,  above 
all,  was  Lessing's  intimate  friend.  To  these  years  belong 
the  fine  Ode  an  die  Preussische  Armee  (1757),  and  the  short 
epic,  Cissides  und  Paches  (1759),  the  most  polished  of  all 
Kleist's  poems.  "  Der  edle  Tod  fiirs  Vaterland,"  which  he 
himself  had  wished  at  the  close  of  this  poem,  was  not  long 
in  coming;  on  August  12,  1759,  he  was  severely  wounded 
in  the  battle  of  Kunersdorf.  He  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  enemy,  and  assistance  came  too  late  to  save  him ;  his 
death  took  place  on  the  2  4th  of  August. 

Although  also,  strictly  speaking,  no  Anacreontic  poet,  Karl  K.  W. 
Wilhelm  Ramler  (i 725-98) l  was  more  akin  than  Kleist 
to  the  school  of  Gleim  and  Uz.  Ramler's  verses  are  the 
complete  embodiment  of  the  rationalistic  classicism  of 
Frederick  the  Great  and  Voltaire.  Had  Frederick  appointed 
a  German  Court  poet,  his  choice  would  undoubtedly  have 
fallen  upon  this  "  German  Horace,"  who,  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  poetic  taste 
in  Berlin.  Ramler's  verses  (Lyrische  Gedichte,  1772),  with 
their  pedantic  metrical  correctness,  were  purely  intellectual 
exercises ;  the  imagination  had  nothing  to  do  with  them. 
The  pomp  of  the  Roman  ode  and  the  graceful  insincerities 
of  Horatian  love -poetry  are  here  clothed  in  German  garb, 
but  they  leave  the  reader  cold;  indeed,  Ramler  is  a  poet 
only  by  virtue  of  what  he  borrows  from  his  masters.  The 
last  writer  of  the  Prussian  group  to  be  mentioned  is  Anna  A.  L. 
Luisa  Karsch,  or,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  time, 
Karschin  (17 22-9 1),2  one  of  the  few  German  women  of  the 
eighteenth  century  who  made  a  serious  profession  of  literature. 
Frau  Karsch  became  known  about  1760,  when  she  attracted 
attention  by  verses  in  the  patriotic  style  then  fashionable.  A 
collection  of  her  Auserlesene  Gedichte  appeared  in  1763.  She 
possessed  considerable  fluency  of  expression,  but  little  origi- 
nality; her  verse  is  mainly  a  mechanical  reiteration  of  the 
classical  style  and  metres  of  her  male  contemporaries.  In 
a  less  artificial  age,  and  amidst  favourable  surroundings,  it 

1  Cp.  F.  Muncker,  I.e.,  2,  199  ff. 

2  Ibid.,  2,  285  ff. 


26o 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Frederick 
the  Great, 
1712-86. 


F.  G. 

Klopstock, 
1724-1803. 


is  possible  that  this  "German  Sappho,"  as  she  called  her- 
self, might  have  found  a  form  of  expression  more  congenial 
to  her  talents  than  the  Horatian  ode ;  Gleim  and  Ramler 
were  kindly  patrons,  but  there  was  little  likelihood  of  a  writer 
of  genius  learning  anything  in  their  school. 

These,  then,  were  the  chief  poets  of  the  Frederician  age : 
no  great  poets  certainly,  but  poets  who  reflected  more  or 
less  faithfully  the  Prussian  spirit  at  the  zenith  of  eighteenth- 
century  rationalism.  Frederick  the  Great  took  little  interest 
in  German  literature — his  De  la  literature  allemande  (lySo)1 
shows  a  complete  misunderstanding  of  the  literary  movement 
of  his  time — but,  as  a  ruler,  he  unconsciously  created  the 
conditions  for  a  truer  national  literature  than  the  Prussian 
poets  dreamed  of.  In  the  Frederick  of  the  Seven  Years'  War 
the  German  people  discovered  a  national  hero ;  the  cannon 
of  Rossbach  awakened  the  nation  to  a  pride  and  self- 
confidence  which  swept  away  the  servitude  to  French  models, 
and  furthered  the  interests  of  literature  to  a  greater  extent  than 
Gottsched's  battle  with  the  Swiss.  Thus  the  debt  of  German 
literature  to  Frederick  the  Great  was  by  no  means  confined 
to  the  war-songs  of  Gleim  and  the  classic  homage  of  Ramler. 
"  Der  erste  wahre  und  hohere  eigentliche  Lebensgehalt,"  wrote 
Goethe  in  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  "kam  durch  Friedrich  den 
Grossen  und  die  Thaten  des  siebenjahrigen  Krieges  in  die 
deutsche  Poesie."2 

The  genius  of  Klopstock  was  to  the  criticism  of  his  time 
what  the  acorn,  to  which  Goethe  in  Wilhelm  Meister  compared 
Hamlet,  was  to  the  costly  jar.  Since  the  early  years  of  the 
century,  the  Germans,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  more 
busily  engaged  in  theorising  about  what  their  literature 
ought  to  be  than  in  producing  literature.  The  importance 
of  Klopstock's  Messias  is  that  it  was  the  first  actual  creation 
in  modern  German  literature ;  and  when  Cantos  I.-III.  of 
this  epic  appeared  in  the  spring  of  1748,  they  shattered 
the  fabric  of  Gottsched's  poetics,  and  reduced  even  the 
theories  of  the  Swiss,  who  had  helped  to  put  the  young 
poet  on  the  right  path,  to  a  mere  beating  of  the  air. 
Klopstock  was  the  first  German  poet  of  the  eighteenth 
century  who  was  in  the  best  sense  "born,  not  made,"  and, 

1  Reprinted  in  the  Litteraturdenkm.,  16,  Heilbronn,  1883. 
3  Werke  (Weimar  edition),  27,  104. 


CHAP.  III.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  26l 

with  his  advent,  the  age  of  theorising  came  abruptly  to  an 
end. 

Friedrich  Gottlieb  Klopstock's  native  place  was  the  old-  Kiop- 
world  town  of  Quedlinburg,  where  he  was  born  on  the  2nd  of  j?f°cks 
July  I724.1  It  is  characteristic  of  Klopstock's  poetic  genius 
that  the  Messias  was  conceived  and  in  great  part  planned 
while  he  was  still  a  schoolboy ;  at  Schulpforta,  where  he  had 
been  sent  to  school  in  1739,  the  study  of  Homer,  the  Bible, 
and,  above  all,  of  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  in  Bodmer's  trans- 
lation (1732),  inspired  him  with  the  ambition  to  give  his 
own  people  a  great  Christian  epic.  In  1745  Klopstock  went 
to  Jena  to  study  theology,  and  here  the  first  three  cantos 
of  the  Messias  were  completed  in  prose ;  in  the  following 
year,  in  Leipzig,  the  prose  was  converted  into  hexameters, 
and  in  1748  the  three  cantos  were  published  in  the  Bremer 
Beytrdge.  The  first  volume  of  the  Messias,  containing 
Cantos  I.-V.,  appeared  in  1751;  the  second,  in  1756,  with 
five  more  cantos.  The  third  volume  (Cantos  XI. -XV.)  was 
not  published  until  1769;  the  fourth  and  last  (Cantos  XVI.- 
XX.)  in  1773,  the  year  of  the  publication  of  Gb'tz  von 
Berlichingen. 

In  May  1748  Klopstock  obtained  a  tutorship  in  Langen- 
salza,  where  an  unhappy  passion  for  his  cousin,  Marie  Sophie 
Schmidt,  the  "  Fanny  "  of  his  Odes,  threw  a  shadow  over  his 
life.  His  reputation,  however,  was  rapidly  spreading,  and  in 
the  summer  of  1750  he  accepted  a  pressing  and  generous 
invitation  from  Bodmer,  the  first  and  most  enthusiastic  admirer  Klopstock 
of  his  epic,  to  visit  him  in  Zurich.  The  visit  was  a  dis- 
appointment  on  both  sides,  a  disappointment  for  which  Klop- 
stock was  mainly  to  blame.  Bodmer  did  not  approve  of  the 
readiness  with  which  the  young  poet  gave  himself  up  to 
worldly  enjoyments  in  Zurich ;  his  tastes  were  little  in  har- 
mony with  Bodmer's  ideal  of  a  "  Messiasdichter,"  and  a 
coolness  sprang  up  between  the  two  men  which  resulted  in 
all  but  a  complete  breach.  After  Klopstock  had  spent  nearly 
seven  months  in  Switzerland,  a  prospect,  held  out  to  him 
since  his  epic  had  made  him  famous,  was  realised :  the  King 
of  Denmark,  Frederick  V.,  invited  him  to  make  Copenhagen  invitation 
his  home  and  to  complete  the  Messias  there.  On  his  journey  *°  c°Pen- 

1  F.  Muncker,  F.  G.  Klopstock,  Stuttgart,  1888  ;    Werke,  ed.  R.  Hamel,  4 
vols.  in  D.N.L.,  46-48  [1884]. 


262  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

northward  he  spent  some  time  in  Hamburg,  where  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Meta  or  Margareta  Moller,  the  "  Cidli " 
of  the  Odes,  who,  in  1754,  became  his  wife.  His  happiness, 
however,  was  of  short  duration ;  four  years  later  Meta  died, 
and  Klopstock's  life  again  became  unsettled.  Copenhagen 
virtually  remained  his  home  until  1770,  when  political  changes 
loosened  his  ties  to  Denmark ;  he  then  retired  to  Hamburg, 
without,  however,  losing  his  Danish  pension.  He  died  in 
1803,  and  was  buried  in  Ottensen,  near  Hamburg,  with  great 
pomp  and  circumstance. 

Der  The  Messias  is  a  poem  of  nearly  twenty  thousand  verses, 

Messias,       distributed  over  twenty  cantos.     Its  theme,  as  set  forth  in  the 
opening  verses,  is  Christ's  redemption  of  mankind  : — 

"  Sing,  unsterbliche  Seele,  der  siindigen  Menschen  Erlosung, 
Die  der  Messias  auf  Erden  in  seiner  Menschheit  vollendet, 
Und  durch  die  er  Adams  Geschlechte  die  Liebe  der  Gottheit 
Mit  dem  Blute  des  heiligen  Bundes  von  neuem  geschenkt  hat. 
Also  geschah  des  Ewigen  Wille.     Vergebens  erhub  sich 
Satan  wider  den  gottlichen  Sohn  ;  umsonst  stand  Judaa 
Wider  ihn  auf;  er  that's,  und  vollbrachte  die  grosse  Versohnung."  * 

Klopstock  takes  up  the  narrative  of  the  New  Testament  at  the 
point  where  Christ  ascends  the  Mount  of  Olives — this  he 
regards  as  the  beginning  of  Christ's  sufferings  for  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  race — and  closes  with  Christ  taking  His  seat 
on  the  right  hand  of  God.  But  the  Gospel  narrative  between 
these  two  limits  gives  but  a  small  idea  of  the  contents  of  the 
Messias.  Klopstock,  like  his  model,  Milton,  does  not  restrict 
himself  to  the  events  that  pass  upon  earth ;  they,  indeed,  only 
form  a  small  part  of  the  poem.  Hosts  of  angels  and  devils 
are  marshalled  before  us,  even  the  Trinity  itself  appears.  The 
poet  penetrates,  as  it  were,  below  the  surface  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  attempts,  after  the  manner  of  the  classic 
epic,  to  give  every  action  and  event  a  spiritual  significance. 
And  yet,  of  all  the  religious  poems  of  the  world,  the  Messias 
is  unquestionably  the  most  monotonous  and  difficult  to 
read.  The  fault  lay  not  so  much  in  the  subject — although 
the  section  of  Christ's  life  to  which  Klopstock  restricted 
himself  was  too  meagre  for  so  long  an  epic  —  but  in  the 
poet  himself.  Klopstock's  genius  was  lyric  rather  than  epic ; 
he  misunderstood,  or  perhaps  never  tried  to  understand, 

1  Text  of  1748  (R.  Hamel's  edition,  i,  5). 


CHAP.  III.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  263 

the  conditions  of  the  religious  epic.  He  did  not  see  that 
the  method  of  Homer  and  Milton,  the  method  which,  with 
unconscious  art,  the  'medieval  poets  followed,  was  the  only 
possible  one ;  the  superhuman  figures  of  a  religious  faith  have 
to  be  humanised,  the  spiritual  to  be  materialised,  to  bring  them 
within  human  comprehension  and  sympathies.  Klopstock 
recoiled  with  the  sensitiveness  of  that  Pietism  which  forms 
the  background  of  his  poem  from  such  anthropomorphism ; 
he  sought  to  avoid  it  by  drawing  his  superhuman  figures 
in  vague  indefinite  outlines.  But  without  humanly  interesting 
characters,  dramatic  action  or  movement  is  naturally  im- 
possible. It  is  this  "  divine  inaction  "  of  its  personages  that 
makes  it  so  difficult  to  follow  the  thread  of  the  Messias.  Klop- 
stock describes  "  feelings  "  for  us,  not  actions ;  he  swims  in  a 
sea  of  lyric  sentiment,  and  forgets  even  the  first  duty  of  an  epic 
poet,  to  describe  something  that  happens.  The  line — 

"Also  fliesse  mein  Lied  voll  Empfindung  und  seliger  Einfalt"1 — 

might  serve  as  a  motto  for  the  whole  poem. 

To  the  modern  reader,  the  most  attractive  side  of  the 
Messias  is  the  grandiose  flights  of  imagination  which  create 
for  the  earlier  cantos  so  spacious  an  atmosphere.  The 
awe-inspiring  aspects  of  nature  —  the  roll  of  the  thunder, 
the  majesty  of  the  mountains,  the  eternities  and  infinities 
— here  play  a  great  part,  and  reveal  an  imaginative  power 
possessed  by  no  other  poet  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  But  the  heaven -scaling  enthusiasm  of  the  earlier 
cantos  soon  died  out,  and  the  more  careful  style  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  poem  seems  nowadays  but  a  poor  substitute 
for  it.  In  the  first  three  cantos  is  to  be  found  the  most 
subtle  essence  of  Klopstock's  poetry.  The  fourth  contains 
some  fine  poetry,  notably  the  description  of  the  Last 
Supper,  but  is  tediously  long.  Perhaps  the  ripest  cantos  of 
all  are  the  three  which  follow,  although  the  first  poetic  glow 
is  missing.  From  Canto  VIII.  onwards  the  inequalities 
are  more  noticeable,  and  few  readers  have  now  patience  to 
read  the  second  half  of  the  poem  at  all. 

Long  before  the  Messias  was  concluded,  it  was  left  behind  in 
the  rapidly  advancing  movement  of  German  literature.  A  new 
generation  had  arisen — the  "Sturmer  und  Dranger" — who 

1  Canto  4,  1.  1071  (i.e.,  i,  215). 


264  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

cared  little  for  the  passive  sentimentality  of  Klopstock,  and 
demanded  instead  the  fierce  action  and  plastic  figures  of  the 
theatre ;  Shakespeare,  not  Milton,  was  the  master  to  whom 
they  looked  up.  Thus  the  wild  enthusiasm  that  greeted 
Klopstock's  epic  at  the  middle  of  the  century  had,  in  less  than 
twenty  years,  completely  cooled.  The  public  that  remained 
faithful  to  the  old  poet  consisted,  for  the  most  part,  of 
sentimental  readers  who  feared  lest  he  should  be  too  hard- 
hearted to  pardon  his  contrite  devil,  Abbadona,  at  the  Last 
Judgment.  To  realise  the  epoch-making  nature  of  the 
Messias,  it  must  be  remembered  that  it  was,  for  its  time,  the 
first  German  epic;  in  1748  Germany  knew  nothing  of  her 
older  epic  literature  —  the  Heliand  and  the  Nibelungenlied, 
Parzival  and  Tristan.  We  must  look  into  the  tedious  poetry 
that  preceded  the  Messias,  into  C.  H.  Postel's  Grosser  Witte- 
kind  (1724)  and  the  Alexandrine  epics  already  referred  to,  by 
Besser,  Konig,  Pietsch,  and  Triller,  to  understand  how  great 
an  innovator  Klopstock  really  was.  But  the  Messias  came  too 
late,  or  rather  German  literature  advanced  too  rapidly  to  allow 
of  it  creating  a  school;  the  imitations  of  the  epic  were  of 
little  value.  Bodmer  was  the  most  industrious  of  Klopstock's 
followers,  and  his  Noah  (1750-52)  the  first  of  a  long  series  of 
epics  of  this  class,  each  of  which  was  inferior  to  its  prede- 
cessor. Both  Lavater  and  Wieland,  to  mention  two  other 
writers,  whom  we  shall  meet  with  later  on,  wrote  Biblical 
epics  in  their  youth. 

Although  the  Messias  has  now  virtually  passed  into  the 
limbo  of  unread  books,  Klopstock's  lyric  poetry  still  retains 
its  hold  upon  our  interest.  Klopstock  wrote  lyrics  all  his  life 
long,  and  for  the  most  part  in  the  rhymeless  and  antique 
measures  which  Pyra  and  Lange,  it  will  be  remembered,  intro- 
duced into  modern  German  poetry.  Klopstock  first  collected 
Oden,  1771.  and  published  his  lyrics  under  the  generic  title  of  Oden  in 
1771.  These  Odes,  of  which  the  complete  collection  embraces 
no  less  than  229  poems,1  show  essentially  the  same  general 
development  that  is  to  be  observed  in  the  Messias ;  the  early 
ones,  those  to  his  Leipzig  friends  and  to  "  Fanny,"  are  filled 
with  the  same  spirit  as  the  first  three  cantos  of  the 
epic.  An  intense  religious  fervour  permeates  them  all,  and 

1  Ed.  F.  Muncker  and  J.  Pawel,  Stuttgart,  1889 ;  in  Hamel's  edition,  vol.  3 
(D.N.L.,  47). 


CHAP,  ill.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  265 

even  overflows  into  the  love  poetry.     Later  comes  the  calmer 

verse  dedicated  to  Meta  ("Cidli"),  which  in  turn  gives  place 

to  poetry  inspired   by  the  Germanic   past,    and,   later   still, 

to   odes   expressing    the   poet's    disappointed   hopes   in   the 

French  Revolution.     In  1758,  and  again  in  1769,  Klopstock, 

it  may  be  noted,  published  two  volumes  of  Geistliche  Lieder, 

but  they  are  much  inferior  to  the  Odes.     His  supreme  import-   Klopstock 

ance  for  the  development  of  German  poetry  is  to  be  sought  as  ^^ 

in  his  lyric  poetry;  notwithstanding  his  un-German  metres, 

it   was   he   who   freed   the   lyric   from   the   false    classicism 

of  the  Prussian  poets,  and  led  it  back  to  the  true  national 

form  which  was  to  reach  perfection  in  Goethe.     In  poems 

of  which  Die  friihen    Grdber   (1764)   may  be   taken    as   a 

specimen,  Klopstock  discovered  again  the  spring  of  German 

lyric  feeling : — 

"  Willkommen,  o  silberner  Mond, 
Schoner,  stiller  Gefahrt  der  Nacht ! 
Du  entfliehst?     Eile  nicht,  bleib,  Gedankenfreund  ! 
Sehet,  er  bleibt,  das  Gewdlk  wallte  nur  bin. 

Des  Mayes  Erwachen  ist  nur 
Schoner  noch,  wie  die  Sommernacht, 
Wenn  ihm  Thau,  hell  wie  Licht,  aus  der  Locke  trauft, 
Und  zu  dem  Hugel  herauf  rothlich  er  komt. 

Ihr  Edleren,  ach  es  bewachst 
Eure  Maale  schon  ernstes  Moos  ! 
O  wie  war  gliicklich  ich,  als  ich  noch  mit  euch 
Sahe  sich  rothen  den  Tag,  schimmern  die  Nacht."  J 

Comparing  Klopstock  with  Milton,  Herder  once  remarked 
that  a  single  ode  by  the  German  poet  outweighed  the  whole 
lyric  literature  of  Britain.  Such  a  judgment,  strange  as  it 
may  seem  to-day,  is,  at  least,  a  testimony  to  the  esteem  in 
which  Klopstock  was  held  by  his  contemporaries. 

Passing  over  the  dream  of  a  literary  commonwealth  em- 
bodied in  Klopstock's  Deutsche  Gelehrtenrepublik  (1774),  one 
of  the  best  of  the  many  quixoteries  of  eighteenth-century 
literature,  we  have  still  to  consider  a  side  of  his  activity 
which  appealed  as  strongly  to  his  contemporaries  as  did  the 
Messias.  Klopstock  wrote  six  dramas  of  which  three  were  on  Klop- 
Biblical  themes  :  Der  Tod  Adams  (1757),  which  was  translated 
into  the  chief  European  tongues,  Salomo  (1764)  and  David 
1  Hamel's  edition,  3,  IIQ, 


266  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

(1772);  the  others  were  what  their  author  called  "Bardiete" 
—  a  word  suggested  by  the  barditus  of  Tacitus  —  and 
form  a  trilogy  on  the  national  hero  Hermann  or  Arminius. 
Hermanns  Schlacht  appeared  in  1769,  Hermann  und  die 
Fiirsten  in  1784,  and  Hermanns  Tod  in  1787.  These  dramas, 
which  are  written  in  prose  interspersed  with  "bardic"  songs 
and  choruses,  possess  much  lyric  beauty,  but  are  in  no  sense 
dramatic.  They  came  upon  the  crest  of  a  literary  move- 
ment which  found  its  way  to  Germany  from  England,  where 
Macpherson's  Ossian  had  revealed  the  charm  that  lay  in 
primitive  literature.  The  first  German  translation  of  Ossian 
appeared  in  1764,  and  kindled  an  enthusiasm  which  was 
even  more  abiding  in  its  influence  than  was  the  Ossian-fever 
in  England,  for  it  awakened  the  German  people  to  a  serious 
interest  in  their  own  past. 

In  this  "  bardic  "  movement  three  other  poets  are  associated 

with  Klopstock  :  Michael  Denis  (1729-1800),  K.  F.  Kretsch- 

H.  W.  von   mann   (1738-1809),    and    H.    W.   von    Gerstenberg   (1737- 

SyTysj-    l823)-1     The  first  and>  at  tne  same  time>  the  last  of  these 
1823!  "  bards  "  was  Gerstenberg :  the  first  because  with  the  Gedicht 

eines  Skalden  (1766),  a  poem  inspired  by  Ossian,  he  intro- 
duced bardic  poetry  to  German  literature;  the  last,  because 
he  represents  the  transition  from  Klopstock  to  the  "  Sturm  und 
Drang."  Gerstenberg  was  a  more  gifted  poet  than  either 
Denis  or  Kretschmann,  but  he  is  now  chiefly  remembered  by 
his  gruesome  tragedy,  Ugolino  (1768),  in  which  the  passivity 
of  Klopstock  had  already  given  place  to  the  drastic  theatrical 
effects  of  the  younger  writers.  To  this  tragedy,  as  well  as 
K.  F.  to  Gerstenberg's  critical  activity,  we  shall  return.  Kretsch- 

Kretsch-       mann,  the  noisiest  and  most  tasteless  of  the  group,  was  but 
1738-1809.     meagrely   gifted.       His    Gesang  Rhingulfs   des   JBarden,   Als 
Varus   geschlagen    war    (1768),    which    was    enthusiastically 
received  on  its  appearance,  might  serve  as  a  typical  specimen 
M.  Denis,     of  this  whole   class    of  poetry.     Denis,   the    chief  Austrian 
1729-1800.     representative    of   the    "bards,"    made    his   reputation   as    a 
translator    of  Ossian    (1768-69),   and   in    1772   published  a 
collection   of  his  own  poems  under  the  title  Lieder  Sineds 
des  Barden  (the  anagram  in   "Sined"  being  obvious).     His 

1  Klopstocks  Hermanns  Schlacht  und  das  Bardenwesen  des  18.  JaArA.,  ed.  by 
R.  Hamel  (Klopstocks  Werke,  4,  D.N.L.,  48  [1884]).  On  Denis,  cp.  P.  von 
Hofmann-Wellenhof,  M.  Denis,  Innsbruck,  1881. 


CHAP.  III.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  26? 

services  in  popularising  North  German  literature  in  Austria 
were,  however,  more  lasting  and  important  than  his  own 
contributions  to  German  poetry.  On  the  whole,  the  "bardic" 
movement  was  a  well-meaning  revolt  against  the  artificial 
classicism  of  the  Prussian  school  of  lyric  poets,  but,  as  even 
contemporaries  recognised,  it  was  on  too  narrow  a  basis  to 
become  genuinely  national.  Within  a  very  few  years  it  had 
either  been  identified  with  the  "Sturm  und  Drang,"  or  its 
ideas  had  been  appropriated  by  the  members  of  the  Gottingen 
"  Dichterbund." 

A  writer  who  stands  somewhat  apart  from  the  feverish 
development  of  German  literature  in  the  eighteenth  century 
was  Salomon  Gessner  (I730-88).1  He  was  one  of  those  S.  Gessner, 
gentle,  retiring  writers  who,  while  harking  back  to  the  literary  z73o-88. 
ideals  of  the  Renaissance,  shared  at  the  same  time  the  love 
for  nature  of  his  age :  Gessner's  Idyllen  was  the  most  popular 
German  book  in  Europe  before  the  appearance  of  Werther. 
Born  in  Zurich  in  1730,  he  came  to  Berlin  at  the  age  of 
nineteen  to  learn  the  trade  of  a  bookseller,  but  art  and  litera- 
ture were  more  to  his  taste.  He  began  by  writing  verses  in 
the  style  of  the  Anacreontic  school,  but,  following  Ramler's 
suggestion,  tried  prose  and  found  in  it  a  congenial  mode  of 
expression.'  The  famous  Idyllen  (1756  and  1772),  the  pas- 
toral romance,  Daphnis  (1754),  and  even  his  epic  on  the 
Tod  Abels  (1758),  are  written,  not,  as  might  be  expected, 
in  verse,  but  in  a  delicately  balanced  prose.  Artificial  in 
the  extreme  is  the  rococco  world  of  sighing  shepherds  and 
coy  shepherdesses,  but  the  power  which  the  "  Swiss  Theoc- 
ritus" possessed  of  conveying  to  his  readers  his  own  warm 
love  for  nature  was,  at  least,  genuine ;  the  tentative  descriptive 
poetry  of  Brockes  and  Haller  was  here  raised  to  a  higher  plane. 

1  Ed.  A.  Frey  in  D.N.L.,  41  [1884].     Cp.  H.  Wolfflin,  Salomon  Gessner, 
Frauenfeld,  1889. 


268 


CHAPTER    IV. 

LESSING. 

G.  E.  IN  the  autumn  of  1746,  after  a  promising  school  career  at 

Lessing,  t^e  Fiirstenschule  of  St  Afra  in  Meissen,  Gotthold  Ephraim 
Lessing l  became  a  student  of  the  University  of  Leipzig.  He 
was  in  his  eighteenth  year,  having  been  born  at  Kamenz, 
in  the  Oberlausitz  in  Saxony,  on  the  22nd  of  January  1729. 
Leipzig,  as  he  found  it,  was  essentially  the  Leipzig  of  the 
"Bremer  Beitrager."  Gottsched,  it  is  true,  was  no  longer 
the  unquestioned  dictator  of  German  literature,  but  the  first 
cantos  of  the  Messias  had  not  yet  appeared.  Although 
Lessing  did  not  belong  to  the  coterie  which  contributed  to 
the  Beitrcige — his  chief  friends  were  Kastner  the  epigram- 
matist, and  a  journalist,  C.  Mylius — his  early  literary  work 
was  exclusively  influenced  by  the  Saxon  school.  The  centre 
of  his  interests  was  not  the  university,  but,  to  the  consterna- 
tion of  his  family — his  father  was  a  pastor — the  theatre. 
He  was  on  friendly  terms  with  the  actors  of  Frau  Neuberin's 
Early  company,  and  in  the  beginning  of  1748  his  first  play,  Der 

dramas.  junge  Gelehrte,  which  throws  an  interesting  light  on  his  own 
personality  at  this  time,  was  publicly  produced  by  them. 
The  best  drama  of  his  student  years  is  the  comedy  Der 
Misogyn  (1748),  originally  in  one  act,  but  at  a  later  date 
revised  and  extended  to  three ;  it  is,  however,  wholly  in  the 
style  and  tone  of  the  comedy  of  the  time. 

Meanwhile,  in  his  studies,  Lessing  turned  from  theology 
to  medicine,  but  in   1748  his  university  career  came  to  an 

1  E.  Schmidt,  Lessing  ;  Geschichte  seines  Lebens  und  seiner  Schriften,  2  vols., 
2nd  ed.,  Berlin,  1899;  Samtliche  Schriften,  edited  by  K.  Lachmann,  3rd  ed. 
by  F.  Muncker,  15  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1886-1900.  In  D.N.L.,  edited  by  R. 
Boxberger  and  H.  Bliimner,  vols.  58-71  [1883-90]. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  269 

abrupt  close.  His  theatrical  friends  found  themselves  in 
difficulties  and  left  Leipzig  suddenly,  and,  as  Lessing  had 
become  surety  for  part  of  their  debts,  he  too  was  obliged  to 
make  his  escape.  In  November  he  settled  in  Berlin,  where,  Lessing  in 
with  the  exception  of  the  winter  of  1751-52,  which  he  spent  1Serlm' 
in  Wittenberg,  he  remained  until  1755.  ^n  Berlin,  Lessing's 
interest  in  the  theatre  was  unabated,  but  the  original  plays 
written  at  this  time  show  little  advance  upon  what  he  had 
already  done.  Two  alone  still  possess  some  interest,  Der 
Freygeist  (1749),  which  treats  a  theme  that  lay  near  to 
Lessing's  heart — namely,  that  a  freethinker  need  not  be  a 
villain — and  Die  Juden  (1749),  a  forerunner  of  Nathan  der 
Weise.  His  lesser  poetical  attempts,  which  were  published 
in  1751,  under  the  title  Kleinigkeiten,  are  not,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  some  of  the  epigrams,  conspicuously  original. 

In  conjunction  with  Mylius,  who  had  become  editor  of  the  First 
Berlinische  privilegirte  Zeitung,  Lessing  planned  a  quarterly  ^"[^.L 
journal  with  the  title  Beytrdge  zur  Historic  und  Aufnahme  1749-55.' 
des  Theaters  (1750).  The  plan,  however,  was  on  too  vast 
a  scale  to  be  successful;  only  four  parts  appeared,  the  chief 
contents  of  which  were  a  Leben  des  Plautus,  and  a  translation 
and  criticism  of  the  Captivi,  all  by  Lessing  himself.  In  the 
preface  to  these  Beytrdge — dated  October,  1749  —  Lessing 
first  stated  his  opinion  that  the  future  of  the  German  national 
theatre  lay  in  an  imitation  of  the  English  rather  than  of  the 
French  drama.  His  best  critical  writing  during  this  period 
appeared  in  the  Berlinische  privilegirte  Zeitung,  and  in  a 
monthly  supplement  of  this  paper,  Das  Neueste  aus  dem 
Reiche  des  Witzes,  which  was  written  exclusively  by  Lessing 
from  April  to  December,  1751.  In  these  book  -  reviews, 
which  cover  the  entire  field  of  literature,  Lessing's  genius 
first  reveals  itself.  His  attitude  towards  the  literature  of 
his  time  is  strictly  impartial;  he  belongs  to  no  school.  His 
judgments  are  clear  and  decisive,  and  expressed  with  a  terse- 
ness and  directness  hitherto  unknown  in  German  literary 
criticism.  In  1753,  Lessing,  feeling  his  position  as  a  man 
of  letters  assured,  began  to  publish  a  collected  edition  of 
his  Schrifften  (6  vols.,  1753-55).  In  the  second  of  these 
volumes  he  had  criticised  briefly  a  translation  of  Horace 
by  S.  G.  Lange,  who  has  been  already  mentioned  as  joint- 
author  with  Pyra  of  the  Freundschaftlichen  Lieder.  Lange 


270 


THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Vade 

Mecum  fur 
S.  G. 
Lange, 
1754- 


Moses 
Mendels- 
sohn, 1729- 
86. 


C.  F. 

Nicolai, 


Lessing's 

Rettungen, 

1753-54- 


resented  Lessing's  criticism,  and  contemptuously  described 
his  works,  owing  to  the  small  size  of  the  volumes,  as 
"  Vademecums."  Lessing  promptly  replied  with  an  anni- 
hilating Vade  Mecum  fiir  den  Hrn.  Sam.  Gotth.  Lange  (1754), 
in  which  he  submitted  the  translation  to  a  searching  criticism 
and  completely  destroyed  Lange's  small  literary  prestige  as 
the  head  of  the  older  Halle  school. 

The  last  part  of  Lessing's  residence  in  Berlin  was  one 
of  the  brightest  periods  in  his  life  ;  his  work  met  with  en- 
couraging success,  and  in  these  years  he  made  two  of  his 
warmest  friendships,  with  Mendelssohn  and  Nicolai.  Moses 
Mendelssohn  (1729-86),  who  had  fought  his  way  with  heroic 
perseverance  from  a  humble  rank  to  a  position  of  respect 
and  influence  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  capital,  is  best 
remembered  by  his  Phadon  (1767),*  a  popular  treatise  in  the 
form  of  conversations  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  but  two 
years  earlier  he  had  published  a  volume  of  letters  Uber  die 
Empfindung.  In  the  essay  entitled  Pope  ein  Metaphysiker  I 
(1755),  which  he  wrote  in  conjunction  with  Lessing,  the  line 
of  argument  is  obviously  Lessing's,  not  Mendelssohn's.  C.  F. 
Nicolai  (i733-i8u)2  was  a  bookseller  of  Berlin,  and,  in  his 
earlier  years,  as  Lessing's  friend  and  ally,  he  exerted  a  healthy 
influence  on  the  development  of  literature ;  he  also  wrote 
a  novel,  the  celebrated  Sebaldus  Nothanker  (1773),  which, 
although  not  so  much  a  story  as  a  rationalistic  tract  against 
orthodoxy,  gives  an  admirable  picture  of  the  time,  and  his 
Beschreibung  einer  Reise  durch  Deutschland  und  die  Schweiz 
(1783),  which  in  a  subsequent  edition  was  extended  to  twelve 
volumes,  has  a  similar  interest.  Later,  as  the  chief  rep- 
resentative of  rationalism  in  literature,  Nicolai  parodied 
Werther,  was  the  butt  of  many  of  Goethe  and  Schiller's 
Xenten,  and  fought  tooth  and  nail  against  the  young  Roman- 
tic school.  In  company  with  these  two  friends,  Lessing 
began  in  1759  the  Brief e  die  neueste  Litteratur  betreffend^ 
a  review  to  which  we  shall  return  shortly.  But  before 
this  date  he  had  opened  the  series  of  his  writings  on 
theological  subjects  with  a  volume  of  Rettungen  (1753-54) 
— vindications  of  thinkers  whose  reputations  had  suffered 

1  J.  Minor,  Fabeldichter,  Satiriker  und  Popularphilosophen.  des  18.  Jahrh. 
(D.N.L.,  73  [1884]),  211  ff. 

2  J.  Minor,  Lessing s  Jugcndfreunde  (D.N.L.,  72  [1883]),  275  ff. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  2/1 

under  the  bigotry  of  theologians — and,  under  the  influence 
of  Voltaire,  with  whom  he  had  come  into  personal  contact 
a  year  or  two  before,  he  became  a  zealous  partisan  in  the 
chief  intellectual  conflict  of  his  time,  that  between  orthodoxy 
and  rationalism. 

In  1755  Lessing  again  came  forward  as  a  dramatist,  this 
time  with  a  work  which  occupies  almost  as  prominent  a  posi- 
tion in  the  history  of  the  German  drama  as  the  Messias  in  Ger- 
man poetry ;  Miss  Sara  Sampson,  ein  biirgerliches  Trauerspiel,  Miss  Sara 
gave  the  deathblow  to  the  dramatic  theories  of  Gottsched's 
school,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  a  national  drama.  This 
play  was  a  practical  illustration  of  Lessing's  assertion  that  the 
salvation  of  the  drama  was  only  to  be  effected  by  shaking 
off  the  trammels  of  French  classicism  and  imitating 'the  freer, 
more  natural  style  of  the  English  drama.  The  "  biirgerliche 
Trauerspiel "  itself,  the  tragedy  of  common  life,  was  an  English 
growth,  and  it  was  George  Lillo's  Merchant  of  London  (1731), 
the  most  popular  English  play  of  this  class,  which  suggested 
to  Lessing  the  form  and  outline  of  Miss  Sara  Sampson.  In 
another  English  source,  Richardson's  Clarissa  (1748),  he 
found  a  model  for  his  heroine  and  the  tearful  sentimentality 
which  appealed  to  the  taste  of  the  time.  The  plot  of  Miss 
Sara  Sampson,  which  was  produced  at  Frankfort  -  on  -  the- 
Oder  on  the  loth  of  July  1755,  before  an  audience  bathed 
in  tears,  is  briefly  as  follows.  Sara  has  eloped  with  her 
lover  Mellefont — Lessing  borrows  the  names  of  all  his  char- 
acters from  Congreve  or  Richardson — and  they  are  living 
together  at  an  inn,  where  Marwood,  a  former  mistress  of 
Mellefont's,  discovers  them.  She  informs  Sara's  father  of 
his  daughter's  hiding-place  and  induces  Mellefont  to  grant 
her  an  interview  with  Sara.  Under  a  false  name,  Marwood 
endeavours  to  enlist  Sara's  sympathy  on  her  own  behalf  and 
to  turn  her  against  her  lover.  When  she  hears  that  Sampson 
is  willing  to  forgive  his  daughter,  she  again  visits  Sara  and 
poisons  her.  Sara  dies  at  her  father's  feet  and  Mellefont  stabs 
himself  with  a  dagger  which  he  has  wrested  from  Marwood. 
The  sentiment  of  Miss  Sara  Sampson  is  in  the  highest  degree 
lachrymose,  its  dialogue  often  tedious,  and  its  character-drawing 
crude ;  in  less  than  twenty  years  it  was  out  of  date.  But  it 
was  the  forerunner  of  Emilia  Galotti  and  Kabale  und  Liebe> 
and  the  first  of  those  plays  of  social  life  and  social  problems 


272 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Die  Thea- 
traliiche 
Bibliothek, 
1754-58. 


Again  in 
Leipzig. 


J.  F.  von 
Cronegk, 
I73I-58. 

T.  W.  von 
Bra  we, 
1738-58. 


C.  F. 

Weisse, 
1726-1804. 


which,  since  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  have  formed 
a  constant  element  in  the  dramatic  literature  of  Northern 
Europe. 

The  theoretical  background  of  Miss  Sara  Sampson  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Theatralische  Bibliothek  (1754-58).  This, 
Lessing's  second  dramatic  review,  was  hardly  more  successful 
than  its  predecessor,  but  its  contents  were  attractive.  It 
opened  with  a  tre.itise,  Von  dem  lueinerlichen  oder  ruhrenden 
Lustspiele,  discussed  Thomson,  Dryden,  Destouches,  Seneca, 
and  neglected  neither  the  Spanish  nor  the  Italian  drama. 
Lessing,  however,  had  not  yet  realised  the  greatness  of 
Shakespeare. 

Between  the  production  of  Miss  Sara  Sampson  and  the 
summer  of  1758  Lessing  was  mainly  in  Leipzig,  where 
Ewald  von  Kleist  and  he  became  warm  friends ;  he  had 
also  the  prospect  of  seeing  Europe  as  travelling  companion 
to  a  young  man  of  wealth,  but  the  Seven  Years'  War 
broke  out  before  the  travellers  had  got  very  far  and  necessi- 
tated a  speedy  return.  In  Leipzig  the  drama  was  again 
the  centre  of  his  interests,  but  none  of  his  own  plans 
ripened  until  later.  Although  the  playwrights  whom  Lessing 
found  there  were  not  likely  to  throw  the  author  of  Miss 
Sara  Sampson  into  the  shade,  they  were,  none  the  less, 
more  gifted  than  the  "  Bremer  Beitrager "  of  his  student 
days.  J.  F.  von  Cronegk  (1731-58),  the  author  of  a  prize 
tragedy  Codrus  and  an  unfinished  Olint  und  Sophronia, 
belonged  to  the  classical  school  of  Gottsched,  but  his  verse  is 
of  a  higher  order.  Lessing  himself  hoped  much  from  J.  W. 
von  Brawe  (1738-58),  a  scholar  of  his  own,  who,  although 
he  died  when  he  was  only  twenty,  left  two  plays  of  remark- 
able promise,  Der  JFreygeist,  a  "  biirgerliches  Trauerspiel," 
and  Brutus,  one  of  the  earliest  plays  in  the  rhymeless  iambics 
of  the  German  classical  drama.  C.  F.  Weisse  (1726-1804), 
again,  had  been  a  fellow-student  of  Lessing's  at  the  University, 
and  together  they  had  translated  French  tragedies  for  Frau 
Neuberin.  Weisse  had  considerable  talent  as  a  writer  for 
the  stage,  but  he  preferred  to  exercise  it  in  those  easy  com- 
promises that  lead  to  popular  success ;  his  literary  ideals  were 
neither  high  nor  stable.  His  most  frequently  played  tragedies, 
Richard  III.  (1759)  and  Romeo  und  Julie  (1767),  are  adapta- 
tions from  Shakespeare.  Weisse  had  more  success  with 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  273 

another  form  of  dramatic  literature — he  was  virtually  the 
creator  of  the  modern  German  "Singspiel."  Die  Jagd  (1770) 
and  Die  Liebe  auf  dem  Lande  (1768),  for  which  J.  A.  Hiller 
(1728-1804)  composed  the  music,  were  long  favourite  pieces 
on  the  German  stage.1 

After  Kleist's  death,  Leipzig  lost  its  attraction  for  Lessing, 
and  in  May,  1758,  he  returned  to  the  old  friends  in  Berlin. 
The  principal  event  of  his  third  period  of  residence  here 
was  his  share  in  the  Briefe  die  neueste  Litter atur  betreffend  Die 
(1759-65).  This  was  virtually  a  literary  periodical  in  the  ^gfeat 
form  of  letters  addressed  to  a  fictitious  officer  who  was  as-  1759-65. 
sumed  to  have  been  wounded  in  the  war.  In  the  early 
numbers,  the  three  friends,  Nicolai,  Mendelssohn,  and  Lessing 
contributed  the  entire  contents;  when  Lessing's  connection 
with  the  review  ceased — he  wrote,  in  all,  fifty-four  letters 
— his  place  was  taken  by  Thomas  Abbt,  to  whom  we  shall 
return  in  a  subsequent  chapter.  Lessingrs  contributions  to 
the  Litteraturbriefe  form  one  of  the  monuments  of  eigh- 
teenth-century criticism ;  here  is  concentrated  all  that  was 
best  in  the  aesthetic  theories  of  that  century — the  revolt 
against  classicism  and  the  return  to  the  antique,  the  effort 
to  be  natural  and  true,  the  striving  towards  law  and  method. 
Lessing's  criticisms  cover  most  of  the  important  publications 
of  the  day :  Wieland  and  Klopstock  are  admirably  judged ; 
the  historical  tragedy,  the  wretched  quality  of  translations, 
the  pretensions  of  the  theologians  of  Copenhagen  headed 
by  Cramer,  are  discussed  with  clearness  and  logical  precision. 
Above  all,  Shakespeare  is  defended  against  the  accusation 
of  barbarism  brought  against  him  by  the  "  classical "  critics, 
and  in  one  of  the  most  brilliant  paradoxes  in  the  history  of 
criticism,  Lessing  boldly  asserts  that  Shakespeare  more  faith- 
fully observed  the  Aristotelian  laws  than  Corneille  and  Racine. 
He  saw  more  promise  for  the  German  drama  in  the  popular 
pieces  which  Gottsched  would  have  banished,  than  in  imita- 
tions of  French  classics ;  and  as  a  proof,  he  quoted  the  frag- 
ment of  a  drama  by  himself  on  the  subject  of  Faust  (1759), 
which  gives  noble  expression  to  the  ideals  of  the  "  Aufklarung." 

1  On  Weisse,  Cronegk  and  Bra  we,  with  selections  from  their  writings,  cp.  T. 
Minor,  Lessings  J ugendfreunde  (D.N.L.,  72  [1883]) ;  on  Brawe  see  also  A. 
Sauer's  monograph  in  Quellen  und  Forschungen  30,  Strassburg,  1878,  and  on 
Weisse,  J.  Minor,  C.  !•'.  Weisse  und  seine  Beziehungen  xurdeutschen  Litteratur 
des  18.  Jahrh,,  Innsbruck,  1880. 

S 


274 


THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IY. 


Fabeln, 

Philotas, 

1759- 


J.J. 

Winckel- 
mann, 
1717-68. 


Die  Kuml 
des  Alter- 
thums, 
1764. 


Lessing's  Literary  Letters,  although  their  spirit  is  purely  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  are,  in  the  essentials  of  method,  the 
foundation  of  modern  criticism.  Here,  for  the  first  time,  an 
attempt  is  made  to  criticise  reasonably  and  scientifically,  to 
keep  the  judgment  free  from  the  tyranny  of  tradition  on 
the  one  hand,  and  from  empiricism  on  the  other.  In  these 
letters  is  to  be  found  the  justification  for  Macaulay's  claim 
that  Lessing  was  "the  first  critic  in  Europe." 

The  Literary  Letters  did  not  occupy  all  Lessing's  attention 
at  this  time.  In  collaboration  with  Ramler,  he  edited  Logau's 
Epigrams ;  he  also  translated  Diderot's  dramatic  works, 
published  a  collection  of  prose  Fabeln  (1759)  of  his  own, 
introduced  by  an  essay  on  the  Fable,  and  completed  Philotas 
(1759),  a  tragic  dramatic  episode  in  one  act,  inspired  by 
the  war.  In  the  autumn  of  1760  he  left  Berlin  once  more, 
having  accepted  the  remunerative  position  of  secretary  to 
General  Tauentzien,  the  governor  of  Breslau.  Here  (1760-65) 
his  two  next  important  works,  the  Laokoon  and  Minna  von 
Barnhelm,  were  in  great  part  written. 

In  the  Laokoon,  Lessing  is  associated  with  another  of  the 
master-minds  of  the  eighteenth  century,  Johann  Joachim 
Winckelmann.1  The  son  of  a  poor  shoemaker,  Winckelmann 
was  born  at  Stendal  in  the  Mark  of  Brandenburg  on  December 
9,  1717.  With  a  heroism  and  singleness  of  purpose,  which  is 
to  be  seen  in  so  many  men  of  the  eighteenth  century,  he 
made  his  way  first  to  Dresden,  and,  in  1755,  to  Rome;  in 
1768,  he  was  assassinated  in  Trieste.  Although  an  intel- 
lectual force  of  the  first  order,  Winckelmann  had  strangely 
little  in  common  with  the  leading  spirits  of  his  century.  Not 
merely  his  interests,  but  even  his  temperament  and  character, 
were  different  from  theirs ;  indeed,  the  secret  of  his  ability 
to  see  antique  art  with  the  eyes  of  its  creators  lay,  perhaps, 
in  the  fact  that  he  was  himself  something  of  a  Greek. 
His  master-work,  the  Geschichte  der  Kunst  des  Alterthums 
(1764),  one  of  the  most  potent  books  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  history  of  art,  regarded 
as  a  branch  of  knowledge.  According  to  modern  ideas, 
Winckelmann's  creed  was  a  somewhat  narrow  one,  his  de- 

1  K.  Justi,  Winckelmann,  sein  Leben,  seine  Werke  and  seine  Zeitgenossen,  3 
vols.,  and  ed.,  Leipzig,  1898.  A  convenient  reprint  of  the  Gedanken  iiber  die 
Nac hahmung  will  be  found  in  the  Litteraturdenkm.,  20,  Heilbronn,  1885. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  275 

preciation  of  the  Renaissance  masters  unjust,  but  no  one 
in  the  history  of  any  art  or  science  achieved  so  much  single- 
handed  ;  he  has  been  well  compared  with  old  navigators 
who  discovered  unknown  continents.  While  still  in  Dresden, 
Winckelmann  declared  war  against  the  rococo,  and  in  his 
first  work,  Gedancken  iiber  die  Nachahmung  der  Griechischen 
Wercke  in  der  Mahlerey  und  Bildhauer-Kunst  (1754),  he 
wrote  the  famous  words  which,  like  a  magic  key,  opened  the 
world  of  ancient  art  to  the  eighteenth  century : — 

"  Das  allgemeine  vorziigliche  Kennzeichen  der  Griechischen 
Meisterstiicke  ist  eine  edle  Einfalt,  und  eine  stille  Grosse,  so  wohl 
in  der  Stellung  als  im  Ausdruck.  So  wie  die  Tiefe  des  Meers 
allezeit  ruhig  bleibt,  die  Oberflache  mag  no'ch  so  wiiten,  eben  so 
zeiget  der  Ausdruck  in  den  Figuren  der  Griechen  bey  alien  Leiden- 
schaften  eine  grosse  und  gesetzte  Seele." 1 

This  statement  forms  the  nucleus  of  Lessing's  Laokoon :  oder  Der  Lao- 
iiber  die  Grenzen  der  Mahlerey  und  Poesie  (i"j66),z  only  the  koon'  I76 
first  part  of  which  was  ever  completed.  Winckelmann  had 
compared  unfavourably  the  agonising  cries  in  Virgil's  descrip- 
tion of  Laokoon  and  his  sons  with  the  silent  suffering  of  the 
plastic  figures ;  Lessing  pointed  out  that  the  aim  of  Virgil,  as  of 
the  unknown  sculptor  of  the  Laokoon — the  aim  of  Sophocles, 
whose  Philoktetes  is  also  not  a  silent  sufferer — was  "beauty," 
and  that  the  difference  between  their  manner  of  expressing 
pain  was  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  nature  of  their 
art.  The  sculptor  who  appeals  solely  to  the  eye  is  obliged 
to  express  a  feeling  or  sentiment  by  other  means  than  the 
poet  who  appeals  to  the  mind  through  the  ear :  the  medium 
of  the  one  artist  is  space,  in  which  everything  can  be  said  at 
once ;  the  other  has  to  express  himself  in  time,  that  is  to  say, 
one  thought  follows  the  other.  The  supreme  importance 
of  Lessing's  treatise,  which  at  bottom  is  a  supplement  to, 
rather  than  a  contradiction  of,  Winckelmann's  work,  is  that 
it  swept  away  the  confused  ideas  that  existed  as  to  the 
proper  province  of  poetry.  Owing  to  too  literal  an  interpre- 
tation of  Horace's  "  ut  pictura  poesis,"  descriptive  poetry 
which  aimed  solely  at  doing  what  the  painter  could  do  far 
better,  had  long  been  rampant  in  European  literature ;  Lessing 
gave  such  poetry  its  deathblow.  Many  of  the  ideas  of  the 

1  Reprint,  24. 

a  Ed.  H.  Bliimner.  2nd  ed.,  Berlin,  1880. 


2/6  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Laokoon,  it  is  true,  have  lost  their  force  beside  the  more 
catholic  aesthetics  of  Romanticism,  but,  by  denning  the 
boundaries  of  the  various  arts,  Lessing  introduced  a  new 
principle  into  aesthetics  which  influenced  the  whole  later 
development  of  the  science. 

Lessing's  position  as  a  critic  was  now  established  beyond 
question,  and,  shortly  after  the  Laokoon,  he  published  another 
work  which  at  once  placed  him  at  the  head  of  the  dramatic 
Minna  von  writers  of  his  time.  Minna  von  Barnhelm,  the  first  masterpiece 
ffarnkeim,  of  Qerman  comedy,  was  written  chiefly  in  Breslau  in  1763, 
but  did  not  appear  until  1767,  in  the  new  edition  of  Lessing's 
works.  "  If,"  wrote  Lessing  to  Ramler,  "  it  is  not  better  than 
all  my  former  dramatic  pieces,  I  am  firmly  resolved  to  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  the  theatre,"1  and  his  confidence 
in  his  new  work  was  certainly  not  misplaced.  Minna  von 
Barnhelm,  although,  like  all  Lessing's  creative  work,  open 
to  the  criticism  of  being  deficient  in  originality,  is,  none  the 
less,  a  masterpiece  of  eighteenth-century  comedy.  Lessing 
had  not  the  inventive  faculty  of  the  born  poet ;  his  motives, 
his  situations,  and  characters  are  reminiscent  of  his  vast 
reading  in  the  dramatic  literature  of  Europe.  Shakespeare, 
Farquhar,  Moliere,  and  Goldoni  have  all  contributed  to  the 
plot  and  motives  of  Minna  von  Barnhelm  ;  but  what  is  best 
about  the  drama  is  its  close  touch  with  the  events  and  ideas 
of  the  time.  It  is,  as  Goethe  said,  "  die  wahrste  Ausgeburt 
des  siebenjahrigen  Krieges,  die  erste,  aus  dem  bedeutenden 
Leben  gegriffene  Theaterproduction,  von  specifisch  tempor- 
arem  Gehalt."2  The  characters  of  the  play,  whatever  may 
have  been  their  models,  are  themselves  living  and  actual. 
Major  von  Tellheim,  the  Prussian  officer  with  the  extra- 
ordinarily keen  sense  of  honour,  was  undoubtedly  modelled 
on  Lessing's  friend  Kleist,  and  Just  and  Werner  are  not 
less  convincing  portraits  of  the  men  who  fought  under 
Frederick  the  Great.  Tellheim  has  been  dismissed  at  the 
close  of  the  war  under  circumstances  which  unjustly  reflect 
upon  his  good  name ;  his  sense  of  honour  forbids  him  to 
hold  Minna  von  Barnhekn,  a  Saxon  heiress,  to  her  engage- 
ment with  him.  She,  however,  accompanied  by  her  maid 
Franziska  and  her  uncle,  who  does  not  appear  until  the 

1  Letter  of  August  20,  1764. 

2  Dlchtung  und  IVahrheit,  7  (  Werke  27,  107). 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  2/7 

close  of  the  drama,  comes  to  Berlin  and  alights  at  the 
same  inn  where  Tellheim  has  taken  up  his  quarters.  In- 
deed, she  is  the  unwitting  cause  of  Tellheim  being  turned 
out  of  his  rooms  by  the  avaricious  innkeeper,  who  prefers 
the  new  guests  to  a  disbanded  officer  of  uncertain  means. 
Indignant  at  the  treatment  to  which  he  is  subjected,  Tellheim 
moves  to  another  inn,  leaving  the  landlord  a  ring  as  payment 
of  his  debt.  The  landlord  shows  the  ring  to  Minna,  who  at 
once  recognises  it  and  advances  the  required  sum  upon  it. 
She  arranges  a  meeting  with  Tellheim  without,  of  course,  re- 
vealing her  name.  The  major  is  taken  by  surprise,  but  is  not 
to  be  moved  from  his  intention ;  in  vain  Minna  endeavours 
to  show  him  that  his  ideas  of  honour  are  exaggerated  : — 

"  V.  Tellheim.  Horen  Sie,  mein  Fraulein.  Sie  nennen  mich 
Tellheim ;  der  Name  trift  ein.  Aber  Sie  meynen,  ich  sey  cler 
Tellheim,  den  Sie  in  Ihrem  Vaterlande  gekannt  haben ;  der 
bliihende  Mann,  voller  Anspriiche,  voller  Ruhmbegierde  ;  der 
seines  ganzen  Korpers,  seiner  ganzen  Seele  machtig  war ;  vor  dem 
die  Schranken  der  Ehre  und  des  Gliickes  eroffnet  standen  :  der 
Ihres  Herzens  und  Ihrer  Hand,  wann  er  schon  ihrer  noch  nicht 
wiirdig  war,  taglich  wiirdiger  zu  warden  hoffen  durfte.  Dieser 
Tellheim  bin  ich  eben  so  wenig, — als  ich  mein  Vater  bin.  Beide 
sind  gewesen.  Ich  bin  Tellheim,  der  verabschiedete,  der  an  seiner 
Ehre  gekrankte,  der  Kriippel,  der  Bettler.  Jenem,  mein  Fraulein, 
versprachen  Sie  Sich  ;  wollen  Sie  diesem  Wort  halten  ? 

"Das  Fraulein.  Das  klingt  sehr  tragisch  !  Doch,  mein  Herr, 
bis  ich  jenen  wieder  finde, — in  die  Tellheims  bin  ich  nun  einmal 
vernarret, — dieser  wird  mir  schon  aus  der  Noth  helfen  miissen. 
Deine  Hand,  lieber  Bettler  !  (indent  sie  ihn  bey  der  Hand  ergreiff). 

"  V.  Tellheim  (der  die  andere  Hand  mit  dem  Hute  vor  das 
Gesicht  schlagt^  und  sich  von  ihr  abwendcf).  Das  ist  zu  viel  ! 
Wo  bin  ich  ?  Lassen  Sie  mich,  Fraulein  !  Ihre  Giite  foltert 
mich  !  Lassen  Sie  mich." J 

Minna  has  recourse  to  strategy.  She  bids  her  maid  dis- 
close to  Tellheim  that  her  engagement  with  him,  a  Prussian 
officer,  has  led  to  her  being  disinherited  by  her  uncle.  This 
sweeps  all  Tellheim's  pride  away  and  brings  him  to  Minna's 
feet  at  once ;  but  it  is  now  her  turn  to  stand  upon  her 
dignity.  She  refuses  to  be  a  burden  to  him  and  returns 
him  his  ring.  A  letter  arrives  from  the  king  exonerating 
Tellheim  from  blame  and  reinstating  him  in  his  position; 
but  still  Minna  vows  she  will  not  take  back  the  ring  she 

1  Act  2,  sc.     ( Werke,  ed.  K.  Lachmann  and  F.  Muncker,  2,  205). 


278 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


C.  W.  von 

Gluck, 

1714-87. 


Die  Ham- 
burgische 
Drama- 
turgic, 
1767-68. 


has  returned  to  him.  Ultimately  Tellheim  recognises  in  it 
his  own  ring  which  he  had  given  to  the  landlord.  Such, 
in  outline,  is  the  plot  of  Minna  -von  Barnhelm,  one  of  the 
very  few  comedies  of  the  eighteenth  century  which  still  have 
power  to  interest  a  modern  audience. 

Had  Lessing  completed  his  Laokoon,  he  would  probably 
have  devoted  considerable  space  to  the  drama ;  he  might  per- 
haps even  have  paved  the  way  for  a  right  understanding  of  the 
nature  of  ancient  tragedy,  and  have  suggested  the  possibility 
— which  Herder  discovered  a  few  years  later — of  a  revival  of 
Greek  ideals  in  the  modern  music-drama.  It  is  significant 
that  just  at  this  time  a  German  musician,  C.  W.  von  Gluck 
(1714-87),  had  taken  the  first  steps  towards  such  a  revival. 
Gluck's  opera  Orfeo  ed  Euridice  was  produced  at  Vienna  in 
1762,  his  Alceste  with  its  famous  preface  in  1767,  and  his 
two  operas  on  the  subject  of  Iphigenia  in  1774  and  1779. 
While  it  is  open  to  doubt  whether  Lessing  would  have  dis- 
cussed the  music-drama,  it  may  at  least  be  assumed  that 
much  of  what  was  intended  for  the  Laokoon  passed  over 
into  the  Hamburgische  Dramaturgic  (1767-68). 

In  1767,  a  number  of  wealthy  Hamburg  citizens  resolved 
to  establish  in  that  city  a  German  National  Theatre,  and 
Lessing  accepted  the  appointment  of  critic  and  literary  ad- 
viser. From  the  beginning,  however,  the  theatre  was  little 
better  than  a  failure,  and  after  about  eighteen  months  it  was 
compelled  to  close  its  doors ;  but  the  Hamburg  experiment 
occupies  an  honourable  place  in  the  history  of  the  German 
drama  as  the  first  attempt  to  nationalise  the  theatre.  And 
to  Lessing's  connection  with  it  we  owe  the  Hamburgische 
Dramaturgic}-  His  first  intention  was  to  write  a  running 
commentary  upon  the  work  of  the  theatre,  criticising  both 
plays  and  actors ;  but  it  soon  became  clear  that  his  position 
as  salaried  official  made  it  difficult  for  him  honestly  to  ex- 
press his  opinion  on  such  points,  and  his  criticism  was  thus 
ultimately  limited  to  literary  and  dramaturgic  questions.  The 
Hamburgische  Dramaturgic  may  be  regarded  as  a  continuation 
of  what  Lessing  had  begun  in  his  two  earlier  dramatic  peri- 
odicals ;  here  he  denies  emphatically,  and  with  the  enthusiasm 

1  Ed.  F.  Schroter  and  R.  Thiele,  2  vols.,  Halle,  1877-78 ;  cp.  W.  Cosack, 
Materialien  zu  Lessings  Hamburgischer  Dramaturgie,  and  ed.,  Paderborn, 
1891. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  2/9 

of  a  reformer  rather  than  with  the  unbiassed  calm  of  a  critic, 
that  the  French  classical  tragedy  is  dramatic  poetry  of  the 
first  order;  he  opens  the  eyes  of  his  countrymen  to  the 
greatness  of  Shakespeare,  and  grasps,  as  no  one  before  him 
had  done,  the  true  meaning  of  Aristotle's  Poetics. 

After  the  ill-success  of  the  Hamburg  theatre,  Lessing  never 
again  took  an  active  interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  German 
stage.  Towards  the  end  of  1771,  however,  he  took  up 
a  play,  which,  intended  for  the  theatre  in  Hamburg,  had 
been  partly  written  there.  This  was  Emilia  Galotti  (1772),  Emilia 
a  modern  version  of  the  story  of  Virginia,  to  which  Lessing  Gal°ui> 
had  been  attracted  in  earlier  years.  Like  Miss  Sara  Sampson,  I772' 
Emilia  Galotti  is  a  "  biirgerliches  Trauerspiel " ;  but  while 
the  former  was  still  tentative,  and  essentially  English,  the 
new  drama  is,  in  the  best  sense,  a  national  German  tragedy, 
even  although  the  scene  is  laid  at  an  Italian  Court.  The 
Prince  of  Guastalla  loves  the  daughter  of  Odoardo  Galotti, 
but  learns  that  she  is  on  the  point  of  marrying  a  Count 
Appiani.  The  prince's  chamberlain,  Marinelli,  conceives  a 
plot  by  means  of  which  the  marriage  may  be  frustrated ; 
he  causes  the  carriage  containing  Count  Appiani,  Emilia, 
and  her  mother  to  be  waylaid  near  a  country  residence  of 
the  prince.  The  count  is  shot  and  Emilia  carried  to  the 
castle  on  the  pretence  that  she  is  being  rescued.  Her  father, 
however,  learns  the  prince's  designs  from  Orsina,  a  forsaken 
mistress  of  the  latter,  and,  rather  than  leave  his  daughter  to 
the  prince's  mercy,  stabs  her.  The  weak  point  of  Emilia 
Galotti  is  its  denouement ;  it  is  questionable,  indeed,  if  any 
dramatist  could  justify  the  murder  of  Virginia  in  the  eyes 
of  a  modern  audience,  and  Lessing  was  certainly  not  able 
to  do  so.  Apart  from  this,  Emilia  Galotti  is  an  admirable 
tragedy ;  its  construction  is  masterly,  and  two  at  least  of  its 
characters,  Marinelli  and  Orsina,  take  rank  with  the  best  in 
German  dramatic  literature.  Of  all  Lessing's  work,  it  had 
most  influence  upon  the  subsequent  development  of  the 
drama,  being,  as  we  shall  see,  in  some  measure  a  forerunner 
of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang." 

Lessing  ceased,  after  the  production  of  Emilia  Galotti,  it 
might  be  said,  to  be  an  active  factor  in  the  literary  move- 
ment. It  was  given  to  him  no  more  than  to  his  pre- 
decessors to  keep  pace  with  the  rapid  growth  of  German 


280 


THE   EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Briefe 

antiqua- 

rischen 

Inhalts, 

1768. 


schichteund 
Litteratur^ 
1773-81. 


The  con- 
troversy 
withGoeze. 


literature  in  the  eighteenth  century ;  but  he  never  ceased  to 
fight  for  that  spiritual  freedom  which  always .  seemed  to  him 
the  end  and  aim  of  the  "education  of  humanity."  While 
in  Hamburg,  he  had  become  involved  in  a  conflict  with  a 
professor  of  the  University  of  Halle,  C.  A.  Klotz,  who  had 
a  reputation  as  an  authority  on  antiquarian  questions.  This 
resulted  in  two  volumes  of  Briefe  antiquarischen  Inhalts 
(1768),  which,  in  1769,  were  followed  by  the  beautiful 
study  on  Wie  die  Alien  den  Tod  gebildet.  In  1770,  Lessing 
accepted  the  position  of  Court  librarian  in  Brunswick,  and 
with  the  exception  of  a  journey  to  Vienna,  Rome,  and  Naples 
in  1775,  Wolfenbiittel  remained  his  home  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  In  1777,  he  married  Eva  Konig,  the  widow  of  one 
of  his  Hamburg  friends,  but  she  died  in  little  more  than  a 
year.  In  the  beginning  of  1778  his  own  health  broke 
down,  and  he  survived  his  wife  only  three  years,  dying  in 
Brunswick  on  the  1 5th  of  February,  1781.  The  last  years  of 
his  life  were  embittered  by  incessant  theological  controversy. 
In  1773,  he  issued  the  first  volume  of  his  contributions 
Zur  Geschichte  und  Litteratur,  in  which,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Rettungen  of  earlier  years,  he  brought  to  light  unknown  or 
unjustly  forgotten  treasures  of  the  library  under  his  care.  In 
the  third  and  fourth  volumes  of  this  work,  Lessing  pub- 
lished a  series  of  fragments  by  a  writer  whose  name,  H.  S. 
Reimarus  (1694-1768),  was  not  disclosed  for  nearly  forty 
years.  The  fragments  discussed  religious  questions  in  a 
rationalistic  spirit,  and  Lessing  soon  openly  avowed  his 
sympathy  for  the  unnamed  champion  of  intellectual  freedom. 
The  hostility  of  the  German  theological  world  was  again 
awakened,  and  J.  M.  Goeze,  the  chief  pastor  of  Hamburg, 
came  forward  to  vindicate  the  cause  of  orthodoxy  against  the 
freethinking  playwright.  Lessing's  share  in  the  fierce  conflict 
which  raged  round  him  is,  in  many  ways,  the  most  remarkable 
achievement  of  his  whole  life,  for  he  had  to  fight  single- 
handed,  rationalist  and  theologian  being  alike  embittered 
against  him.  The  writings  called  forth  by  this  controversy 
in  1778 — Eine  Duplik,  Eine  Parabel,  Axiomata,  and  the 
Anti-Goeze1 — have  never  been  surpassed  in  the  literature  of 
theological  controversy.  Amongst  the  other  prose  works  of 

1   Werkt,  13 ;  Goeze's  share  in  the  controversy  has  been  published  by  E. 
Schmidt  (Litteratvrdenkmale,  43-45,  Leipzig,  1893). 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  28 1 

Lessing's  last  years,  the  most  important  are  Ernst  und  Falk  : 
Gespr ache  fur  Freymaurer(\*ll'&\  and  the  hundred  paragraphs 
on  Die  Erziehung  des  Menschengeschlechts,  which  appeared 
complete  in  1780. 

But  before  his  life  closed  he  turned  once  more  to  his  first 
love,  the  drama.  In  1779,  Nathan  der  Weise  was  published,  Nathan der 
a  play  which  clothes  in  poetic  form  the  ideas  underlying  all  Weise, 
Lessing's  controversial  writings.  But  it  would  be  unjust  to 
regard  Nathan  as  nothing  more  than  a  "  Tendenzdrama." 
The  nucleus  of  the  plot  was  a  fable  which  Lessing  found  in 
the  Decamerone  of  Boccaccio.  In  the  third  act  Nathan  relates 
how  a  certain  man  possessed  a  ring  of  magic  power,  which 
rendered  all  who  believed  in  its  virtue  pleasing  to  God  and 
man.  This  man  had  three  sons  whom  he  loved  equally  well, 
and,  being  unwilling  to  enrich  one  at  the  expense  of  the 
others,  caused  two  other  rings  to  be  made  exactly  like  the  first. 
The  sons,  after  their  father's  death,  dispute  as  to  which  of  them 
possesses  the  true  ring — just  as  Christian,  Jew,  and  Moham- 
medan disputed  regarding  the  possession  of  the  true  religion 
— and  the  judge  advises  each  of  them  to  believe  that  his  ring 
is  the  genuine  one,  and  to  act  accordingly.  Turning  now 
to  Saladin,  who  has  summoned  him  to  an  audience,  Nathan 
points  the  moral  of  his  tale — 

"  Mein  Rath  ist  aber  der  :  ihr  nehmt 
Die  Sache  vollig  wie  sie  liegt.     Hat  von 
Euch  jeder  seinen  Ring  von  seinem  Vater  : 
So  glaube  jeder  sicher  seinen  Ring 
Den  echten.     Moglich  ;  dass  der  Vater  nun 
Die  Tyranney  des  Einen  Rings  nicht  langer 
In  seinem  Hause  dulden  wollen  !     Und  gewiss  ; 
Dass  er  euch  alle  drey  geliebt,  und  gleich 
Geliebt :  indem  er  zwey  nicht  driicken  mogen, 
Um  einen  zu  bestinstigen.     Wohlan  ! 
Es  eifre  jeder  seiner  unbestochnen 
Von  Vorurtheilen  freyen  Liebe  nach  ! 
Es  strebe  von  euch  jeder  um  die  Wette, 
Die  Kraft  des  Steins  in  seinem  Ring'  an  Tag 
Zu  legen  !  komme  dieser  Kraft  mit  Sanftmuth, 
Mit  herzlicher  Vertraglichkeit,  mit  Wohlthun 
Mit  innigster  Ergebenheit  in  Gott, 
Zu  HiilP  !  "  * 

The  three  types  of  religion  are  represented  in  the  play  by 
the  Mohammedan  Saladin,  Nathan  the  Jew,  and  a  young 

1  Act  3,  sc.  7  (  Werke,  3,  94  f.) 


282  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Templar ;  Recha,  the  adopted  daughter  of  the  Jew,  ultimately 
proves  to  be  a  Christian  and  the  Templar's  sister.  The 
characters  are  brought  almost  artificially  into  relations  with 
one  another;  there  is  little  plot,  and  what  there  is  turns 
upon  improbabilities.  Written  in  the  rhymeless  iambics  of 
the  German  classic  drama,1  Nathan  der  Weise  is  less  a  play 
for  the  stage  than  a  dramatic  poem ;  its  worth  lies  in  its 
ideas,  its  lofty  humanity  and  wise  tolerance.  Such  a  poem 
could  only  have  been  produced  by  a  man  who,  himself  a 
"  soldier  in  the  Liberation  War  of  humanity,"  had  been 
chastened  by  suffering  and  had  learned  the  bitter  lessons 
of  life. 

Thus,  from  whatever  side  Lessing's  activity  is  regarded, 
we  find  that  it  sums  up  all  that  was  best  in  the  movement  of 
the  century.  In  this  writer,  the  revolt  against  the  artificial 
classicism  of  the  later  Renaissance  and  the  return  to  the  true 
antique  celebrated  triumphs;  in  his  criticism  of  literature 
and  art,  he  expressed  the  ripest  judgments  of  the  eighteenth 
century ;  while  as  a  creative  artist  he  laid,  single-handed,  the 
foundations  of  the  modern  German  drama.  He  broke  the 
yoke  of  that  intellectual  tyranny  which,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  had  once  more  lain  heavy  on  the  land 
of  Luther,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  founder  of 
modern  thought,  Immanuel  Kant.  Lessing  is  the  supreme 
representative  of  the  intellectual  life  and  ideals  of  the  German 
"  Auf  klarung,"  but  he  may  also  be  said  to  mark  the  end  of 
a  period.  Before  his  career  had  reached  its  close,  a  new 
epoch  in  intellectual  history  had  begun,  that  which,  in  after 
years,  was  known  as  "Sturm  und  Drang." 

1  Cp.  note  on  p.  337. 


283 


CHAPTER    V. 
WIELAND;  MINOR  PROSE  WRITERS. 

THE  writings  of  Wieland  stand  somewhat  apart  from  the 
literature  of  his  time.  He  is  an  anomaly  in  German  letters, 
but  one  on  which  much  depended.  Like  Hagedorn  in  the 
generation  before  him,  like  Heinse  a  little  later,  and  like  a  . 
number  of  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century,  from  Holderlin 
down  to  C.  F.  Meyer  and  Friedrich  Nietzsche  in  our  own 
day,  he  was  the  representative  of  an  un-German,  a  Latin, 
element  in  the  literature.  It  was  largely  due  to  him  that 
the  turbulent  spirit  of  the  new  movement  did  not  outstep  all 
bounds ;  he  helped  to  counterbalance,  not  only  the  moral- 
ising sentimentality,  which,  between  1750  and  1760,  came  in 
Richardson's  train,  but  also  the  extravagant  nature-worship 
of  Rousseau  which  swept  across  Germany  some  years  after- 
wards. Wieland's  work  formed  the  antidote  to  the  overween- 
ing nationalism  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang  " — a  nationalism 
which,  unchecked,  might  have  debarred  German  classical 
literature  from  taking  its  place  among  the  great  literatures 
of  the  world. 

Christoph  Martin  Wieland  1  was  born  in  the  village  of  Ober-  c.  M.  Wie- 
holzheim,  near  Biberach  in  Wiirtemberg,  on  the  $th  of  Sept-  1i*"d»  1733~ 
ember,  1733,  and  grew  up  under  pietistic  influences  and  in  the 
literary  atmosphere  which  had  been  created  by  Richardson  and 
Klopstock.    This,  too,  is  the  atmosphere  of  his  own  early  literary 
productions  (Anti-Ovid^  1752;  Der  gepryfte  Abraham,  1753). 
In  October,  1752,  he  accepted  an  invitation  from  Bodmer  to 
visit  Zurich.     After  spending  some  six  or  seven  months  under  in  Zurich. 

1  Wieland's  Werke,  edited  by  H.  Dilntrer,  40  vols..  Berlin,  1879-82. 
Selections  by  F.  Muncker,  6  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1889,  and  H.  Prohle,  in  D.N.L., 
51-56  [1883-87].  A  critical  biography  of  Wieland  has  yet  to  be  written.  Cp. 
the  article  in  the  Allgem.  deutsche  Biographic,  42  [1897],  by  M.  Koch. 


284 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Transla- 
tion of 
Shake- 
speare, 
1762-66. 


Don 

Sylvia  von 
Jfosalva, 
1764. 


Bodmer's  hospitable  roof,  he  obtained  a  tutorship  in  Zurich,  and 
remained  there  for  the  next  five  years.  From  Zurich  he  went 
to  Berne,  where  he  became  intimate  with  Rousseau's  friend, 
Julie  de  Bondeli,  and,  in  1760,  received  the  appointment 
of  "  Kanzleidirektor "  in  what  was  virtually  his  native  town, 
Biberach.  The  patronage  extended  to  Wieland  by  a  Graf 
von  Stadion,  whose  seat,  Warthausen,  was  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Biberach,  seems  to  have  been  one  reason  of  the 
change  that  came  over  him  about  this  time.  Graf  von 
Stadion,  whose  own  literary  culture  was  chiefly  French, 
admired  his  verses,  and  introduced  him  to  a  world  of  ideas 
very  different  from  that  in  which  he  had  lived  in  Zurich. 
The  English  deists  and  the  French  encyclopedists,  who 
were  well  represented  in  the  Graf's  library,  began  to  take  the 
place  of  Klopstock  in  Wieland's  affections ;  he  discovered 
that  his  true  affinities  were  not  Richardson  and  Young, 
but  Gay  and  Prior,  Ariosto,  Cervantes,  and  Voltaire.  The 
Germanic  past,  in  which  Klopstock  had  once  awakened  his 
interest,  was  forgotten  for  the  world  of  Greek  antiquity  which 
remained  his  favourite  study  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  To 
Voltaire,  Wieland  also  owed  his  first  acquaintance  with 
Shakespeare,  whose  works  at  once  roused  his  enthusiasm ; 
and  between  1762  and  1766,  he  published  a  translation  of 
twenty -two  of  Shakespeare's  dramas.  Although  in  prose 
and  only  tolerably  adequate,  this  translation  of  Wieland's 
first  made  the  German  people  acquainted  with  Shakespeare. 
In  1775-77,  it  was  superseded  by  the  more  complete  version 
by  J.  J.  Eschenburg,  which,  twenty  years  later,  had  to  yield  in 
turn  to  that  of  A.  W.  Schlegel. 

Wieland  not  only  broke  with  his  youthful  pietism,  but  went 
to  the  opposite  extreme ;  he  looked  back  on  his  enthusiasm 
for  the  Messias  with  a  sneer,  and  his  poetry  became  frivolous 
and  cynical.  The  first  result  of  his  conversion  was  a  novel 
which  takes  a  prominent  place  in  the  evolution  of  German 
fiction,  Der  Sieg  der  Natur  iiber  die  Schwiirmerey  oder  die 
Abentkeuer  des  Don  Sylvio  von  Rosalva  (1764).  Wieland's 
model  was  Don  Quixote ;  Don  Sylvio  believes  in  the  exist- 
ence of  fairies  and  goes  out  into  the  world  to  discover 
them.  His  adventures,  the  earlier  ones  at  least,  are  described 
with  great  charm,  and  the  language  of  the  book — perhaps 
the  most  important  thing  about  it  —  is  much  superior  to 


CHAP.  V.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  285 

the  German  prose  that  was  written  at  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  From  the  Romance  literatures  he  loved, 
Wieland  had  learned  the  lesson  of  style. 

The  Geschichte  des  Agathon  (1766-67),  VVieland's  next 
novel,  established  his  fame.  Like  so  much  of  his  work,  T766-67- 
Agathon  has  a  Greek  background,  but  the  author's  concep- 
tions of  the  antique  never  advanced  far  beyond  the  somewhat 
superficial  views  in  vogue  before  Winckelmann.  His  Greek 
novels  are  only  Greek  in  costume  and  scenery,  and  some- 
times not  even  that ;  in  other  respects,  they  are  saturated  with 
the  rationalism  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Agathon,  a  beauti- 
ful Athenian  youth,  who  has  been  brought  up  in  the  tenets 
of  Plato's  philosophy,  is  carried  off  by  pirates  to  Smyrna, 
where  the  Epicurean,  Hippias,  endeavours  to  convert  him  to 
materialism.  Although  proof  against  Hippias's  teaching,  he 
falls  under  the  spell  of  the  hetaira  Danae.  Fleeing  from 
her,  he  comes  to  the  Court  of  Dionysius  of  Sicily,  where 
he  learns  something  of  political  life,  but  his  political  ex- 
periments involve  him  in  difficulties,  and  he  is  thrown  into 
prison.  He  is  ultimately  set  free  by  the  Pythagorean 
Archytas,  who  initiates  him  into  the  true  wisdom — namely, 
that  rationalistic  hedonism  which  formed  Wieland's  personal 
creed.  The  Geschichte  des  Agathon  fulfilled  the  promise  of 
Don  Sylvia ;  it  was  received  with  enthusiasm,  and  even 
Lessing  welcomed  it  in  his  Hamburgische  Dramaturgic  as 
"  der  erste  und  einzige  Roman  fur  den  denkenden  Kopf,  von 
klassischem  Geschmacke."  In  technique,  however,  it  stands 
on  the  same  level  as  the  older  fiction;  the  plot  depends  on 
improbabilities  and  coincidences,  and  the  lengthy  discussions 
on  the  nature  of  virtue  make  it  still  essentially  a  "  moral " 
novel  of  the  Richardsonian  type.  Nevertheless,  Wieland 
first  gave  German  fiction  that  psychological  character  which 
it  has  never  since  lost. 

"  Wir  haben  uns,"  he  says  at  the  beginning  of  the  ninth 
chapter  of  Book  xii.,  "zum  Gesetz  gemacht,  die  Leser  dieser  Ge- 
schichte nicht  bloss  mit  den  Begebenheiten  und  Thaten  unsers 
Helden  zu  unterhalten,  sondern  ihnen  auch  von  dem,  was  bey  den 
wichtigern  Abschnitten  seines  Lebens  in  seinem  Innern  verging, 
alles  mitzutheilen,  was  die  Quellen,  woraus  wir  schopfen,  uns  davon 
an  die  Hand  geben."  l 

l  Werke.  3,  72. 


286  THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Here  is  to  be  found  the  importance  of  Agathon  for  the  de- 
velopment of  fiction ;  it  is  the  first  conspicuously  psychologi- 
cal novel,  and,  as  such,  the  forerunner  of  Wilhelm  Meister. 

Between  1769  and  1772,  Wieland  was  Professor  of  Philo- 
sophy at  the  University  of  Erfurt.  In  the  last-mentioned 
year  he  published  a  strange  book  which  contains  much 
serious  theorising  on  political  government,  in  a  fantastic 
Der  Goldne  framework  suggested  by  the  Arabian  Nights,  This  work,  Der 
Goldne  Spiegel  oder  die  Konige  von  Scheschian,  decided  Wie- 
land's  future ;  it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Duchess  Amalie 
of  Weimar,  and,  on  its  recommendation,  she  invited  Wieland 
to  be  tutor  to  her  two  sons,  Karl  August  and  Constantin. 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  years  in  the  neighbouring  village 
of  Ossmannstadt,  where  he  had  purchased  an  estate,  Wieland 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  Weimar,  dying  there  in 
1813. 

Die  Abde-  His  next  prose  work,  Die  Abderiten,  appeared  in  1774,  the 
riten,  1774.  year  jn  whjch  Goethe's  Werther  took  the  world  by  storm. 
Of  all  Wieland's  prose  works,  Die  Abderiten,  eine  sehr  wahr- 
scheinliche  Geschichte,  is  the  most  attractive  to  the  modern 
reader,  but  it  interests  now  principally  as  a  satire.  The 
doings  of  the  inhabitants  of  ancient  Abdera,  who  were 
famed  for  their  excessive  stupidity,  give  Wieland  an  oppor- 
tunity for  satirising  the  German  provincial  life  of  his  time. 
The  Abderites  build,  for  instance,  a  beautiful  fountain,  but 
neglect  to  furnish  it  with  water;  they  purchase  a  Venus  by 
Praxiteles,  but  place  it  on  so  high  a  pedestal  that  it  cannot 
be  seen.  Even  Demokritos  himself,  the  laughing  philosopher, 
who  was  a  native  of  Abdera,  is  not  spared  by  the  gossiping 
citizens.  More  amusing  and  successful  is  the  description  of 
the  theatre  of  the  town',  which  was  added  to  the  later 
edition  (1777)  of  the  novel,  after  the  author  had  had  ex- 
periences of  his  own  in  producing  Rosamund  (published  1778) 
at  Mannheim.  The  Abderites  believe  that  a  performance  of 
the  Andromeda  of  Euripides,  which  has  been  given  in  their 
theatre,  cannot  be  surpassed.  A  stranger  in  the  audience 
ventures  to  laugh  at  it,  and  only  escapes  the  wrath  of  the 
insulted  populace  by  revealing  himself  to  be  the  author  of  the 
play,  and  by  showing  them  how  it  ought  to  be  performed.  A 
still  more  amusing  episode  is  that  of  the  ass's  shadow.  A 
dentist  hires  an  ass  to  carry  him  to  a  neighbouring  town.  He 


CHAP.  V.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  287 

has  to  cross  a  treeless  plain,  and  as  the  day  is  hot,  he  dis- 
mounts, to  rest  in  the  shadow  of  the  ass.  The  driver  of  the 
ass  objects,  on  the  ground  that  the  ass  and  not  its  shadow 
has  been  hired.  A  lawsuit  ensues,  and  the  whole  town  is 
divided  into  two  parties,  the  "  Asses  "  and  the  "  Shadows  " ; 
excitement  runs  high,  and  ultimately  the  affair  is  brought  to  a 
conclusion  by  the  slaughter  of  the  unoffending  ass.  The  book 
closes  with  the  traditional  act  of  Abderite  folly :  the  inhabi- 
tants abandon  their  town  to  the  sacred  frogs  of  Latona,  because 
they  hold  it  impious  to  kill  them.  In  the  Abderiten,  Wieland's 
style  has  already  lost  its  conciseness,  and  inclines  to  those 
long  and  unwieldy  sentences  for  which  Goethe  and  Schiller 
satirised  him  in  one  of  the  Xenien)-  In  Aristipp  und  Aristipp, 
einige  seiner  Zeitgenossen  (1800-2),  which  is  rather  a  didactic  I  30"2* 
treatise  than  a  novel,  the  faults  of  his  style  and  method 
are  still  more  accentuated  :  for  the  last  twenty -five  years 
of  his  life  he  was  no  longer  in  touch  with  the  movement  of 
German  literature,  and  devoted  himself  mainly  to  translating 
from  Greek  and  Latin. 

Die  Abderiten  appeared  in  the  Teutsche  Merkur,  a  review  Der 
which  Wieland  edited  and  published  from  1773  to  1789. 
Modelled  on  the  famous  Mercure  de  France^  this  was  prac-  1773-89.' 
tically  the  first  modern  review  devoted  to  belles  lettres  in 
Germany,  and  helped  largely  to  mould  public  opinion  and 
taste  in  Germany  and  Austria.  Most  of  Wieland's  own 
literary  work,  from  1773  onwards,  first  appeared  in  its  pages, 
and  its  critical  and  political  articles  show  how  carefully  he 
followed  the  progress  of  events  in  Europe,  political  as  well 
as  literary. 

Wieland's    earliest    attempts   at    tales   in    verse    (Cotnische  Verse 
Erzahlungen,    1765)  were,   as  we*  have  seen,   disfigured    by  romances- 
lapses    into    frivolous    sensuality    and    cynicism ;     but    the 
coarser   elements  gradually  disappeared,  and  in  poems  like 
Musarion,  oder  die  Philosophic  der  Grazien  (1768) — suggested 
by  Prior's  Alma — and  the  unfinished  Idris  (1768),  which 
is  plainly  inspired  by  Ariosto,  the  play  of  Wieland's  grace- 
ful fancy  had  full  scope.      In   the  course  of  the  next  ten 
or  twelve  years  he  wrote  a  large  number  of  romantic  tales 

1  Zum  Geburtstag  (No.  363) : — 

"  M5ge  dein  Lebensfadfn  sich  spinnen,  wie  in  der  Prosa 
Dein  Periode,  bey  dem  leider  die  Lacbesis  schlaft." 


288  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

in  the  light  ironical  tone  of  Ariosto.  Of  these,  Gandalin,  oder 
Liebe  um  Liebe  (1776)  and  Die  Wiinsche  oder  Pervonte  (1778) 
are  the  most  ambitious ;  Geron,  der  Adelich  is  the  most 
serious.  Almost  all  these  stories  come  either  from  Romance 
or,  preferably,  from  oriental  sources,  the  Arabian  Nights  being 
one  of  Wieland's  favourite  books.  In  1780,  the  finest  of  all 
his  romances  in  verse,  Oberon,  was  published.  If  posterity 
has  been  slow  to  subscribe  to  Goethe's  enthusiastic  judgment 
Oberon,  of  Oberon^  the  reason  is  that  the  fantastic  medievalism  of 
1780.  Wieland's  "Ritt  in's  alte  romantische  Land"  has  little  in- 

terest for  the  modern  reader.  The  adventures  of  Huon  of 
Bordeaux,  who,  to  expiate  an  unwitting  crime,  must  go  to 
Bagdad,  enter  the  Caliph's  hall,  kiss  the  Caliph's  daughter 
and  claim  her  as  his  bride,  besides  carrying  off  four  molar 
teeth  and  a  handful  of  hair  from  her  father's  beard,  cannot 
nowadays  be  taken  seriously,  nor  do  we  care  to  know  how 
Oberon  aids  Huon  to  accomplish  his  purpose,  how  the  latter 
breaks  his  vow  and  brings  upon  himself  and  his  bride  Rezia 
"  unspeakable  sufferings."  Indeed,  Wieland  himself  does  not 
take  his  story  very  seriously,  and  even  in  the  most  tragic  scenes 
his  natural  gaiety  does  not  forsake  him.  A  stanza  like  the 
following,  in  which  the  poet's  thoughts  revert  to  his  native 
village,  will,  at  least,  give  an  idea  of  the  metrical  form  of  the 
epic : — 

"  Du  kleiner  Ort,  wo  ich  das  erste  Licht  gesogen, 
Den  ersten  Schmerz,  die  erste  Lust  empfand, 
Sey  immerhin  unscheinbar,  unhekannt, 
Mein  Herz  bleiht  ewig  doch  vor  alien  dir  gewogen, 
Fiihlt  iiberall  nach  dir  sich  heimlich  hingezogen, 
Fiihlt  selbst  im  Paradies  sich  doch  aus  dir  verbannt ; 
O  mochte  wenigstens  mich  nicht  die  Ahnung  triigen, 
Bey  meinen  Vatern  einst  in  deinem  Schooss  zu  liegen  !  "  2 

Oberon  contains  Wieland's  best  poetry,  and  it  was  his 
last  work  of  importance :  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Die  Abderiten,  it  is  the  only  book  of  his  with  which  the 
modern  reader  has  any  familiarity.  Although  his  long 
life  was  devoted  exclusively  to  writing,  he  was  not  one  of 
those  authors  who  build  for  posterity.  The  great  bulk  of 

1  "  Sein  Oberon  wird  so  lang  Poesie  Poesie,  Gold  Gold,  und  Crystall  Cry- 
stall  bleiben  wird,  als  ein  Meisterstiick  poetischer  Kunst  geliebt  und  bewun- 
dert  werden." — Letter  to  Lavater,  Julys,  1780  (Briefe,  4,  253).  Oberon,  edited  by 
R.  Kohler,  forms  the  ninth  volume  of  the  Bibl.  der  deutschen  Nationallitteralur, 
Leipzig,  1868. 

8  Canto  4,  stanza  22  (  Werke,  5,  50). 


CHAP,  v.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  289 

his  work  was  of  his  time  and  for  his  time,  but,  none  the  less, 
it  forms  a  characteristic  and  indispensable  element  in  German 
classical  literature. 

Wieland  had  comparatively  few  imitators ;    and  this  was  Wieiand's 
perhaps  fortunate,   for   the   writers    who   drew  their  inspira-  influence, 
tion    from    him    did    little   towards   improving   the    standard 
of  poetry.     As  a  direct  force,  he  had  some  influence  on  the 
development  of  the  "  komische  Heldengedicht,"  a  form  of  the 
epic  which   Zacharia  first    naturalised  in   German  literature. 
The  Abentheuer  des  frommen  Helden  Aeneas  (I783),1  for  in- 
stance,   a    travesty    of    Virgil    in   doggerel    verse   by   J.    A. 
Blumauer  (1755-98),  is  in  Wieiand's  style,  while  J.  B.  von 
Alxinger   (i  7 5 5-9 7)  z — also,   like    Blumauer,    an   Austrian — 
followed  closely  in  the  train  of  Oberon  with  the  heroic  epics 
jDoolin    von   Maynz   (1787)   and   Bliomberis   (1791).       The 
most  popular  of  all  the  comic  epics  of  this  time  was  Die  K.  A.  Kor- 
Jobsiade,   or,   with   the  full  title  of  the  first   edition,  Leben,  turn's /<?£- 
Meynungen  und  Thaten  von  Hieronimus  Jobs  dem  Kandidaten 
(i784),3  by  K.  A.  Kortum  (1745-1824),  a  doctor  of  Bochum, 
near  Essen.     The  Jobsiade  is  written  in  the  straightforward, 
unrefined  style  of  the  Volksbuch,  and  satirises,  with  an  almost 
brutal  lack  of  charity,  an  unfortunate  theological  "  candidate  " 
whose  prophesied  genius  and  success  forsake  him.      Moritz   M.  A.  von 
August  von  Thiimmel  (1738-1817),*  in  his  comic  prose  epic,    fhummei, 
the   famous    Willhelmine   (1764),    was    almost   as   much    in-   *73 
debted  to  the  older  Saxon  school  as  to  Wieland ;    but  in 
his   later   writings   the    influence   of  Wieland    predominates. 
Thiimmers  masterpiece,  however,  is  the  Reise  in  die  mittdg- 
lichen  Provinzen  von   Frankreich  (10  vols.,    1791-1805),   the 
most    original   of  the    many  German   imitations    of  Sterne's 
Sentimental  Journey. 

The   modern    German    novel   in    its  earliest   stages  owed  The  novel, 
everything,  as  has  beery  seen,  to  England.     Gellert's  Schwe- 
dische   Grdfin  was  the  starting-point,   and,   until    Rousseau's 
Nouvelle  Htloise  (translated   1761)  suggested   to  Goethe  the 

1  Edited  by   E.   Grisebach,   in   the  Bibl.  der  deutschen  Nationallitt.,  35, 
Leipzig,  1872.     Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.N.L.,  141  [1886],  297  ff. 
a  Cp.  D.N.L.,  57  [z888],  ed.  H.  Prohle,  5  ff. 

3  Ed.  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.N.L.,  140  [1883]. 

4  Cp.  Erzdhlende  Prosa  der  klassisc hen  Periode,  ed.  F.  Bobertag,  i  (D.N.L., 
136  [1886]),  3  ff.      Wilhelmine  has  also  been  edited  by  R.  Rosenbaum  for  the 
Litteraturdenkmale,  48,  Leipzig,  1894. 

T 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


J.T. 

Hermes, 

1738-1821. 


S.  von 

Laroche, 

1730-1807. 


J.  K.  A. 

Musaus, 


A.  yon 

Knigge, 

1752-96. 


plan  of  Werther,  the  works  of  Richardson,  and,  in  a  less 
degree,  of  Fielding,  were  the  favoured  models.1  A  typical 
novelist  of  the  period  of  English  imitation  was  J.  T.  Hermes 
(1738-1821),  a  North  German  clergyman,  who  wrote  a 
Geschichte  der  Miss  Fanny  IVilkes,  so  gut  als  aus  dem 
Englischen  iibersetzt  (1766)  and  Sophiens  Reise  von  Memel 
nach  Sachscn  (1769-73).  The  most  readable  German  story 
of  this  class  is  the  Geschichte  des  Fraulcins  von  Sternheim 
(1771),  by  Wieland's  friend,  Sophie  von  Laroche  (1730- 
1807).  Frdulein  von  Sternheim  is  written,  like  its  English 
models,  in  letters,  but  it  also  forms  a  transition  to  the  fiction 
of  the  succeeding  period ;  by  the  side  of  sermons  on  morality 
and  virtue  in  the  manner  of  Richardson,  passion  begins  to 
assert  its  rights.  J.  K.  A.  Musaus  (1735-87)  is  now  only 
remembered  by  his  Volksmdhrchen  der  Deutschen  (i  782-86), 2 
pleasing  versions  of  popular  fairy  tales,  which,  however,  cannot 
belie  the  fact  that  they  were  written  in  an  unbelieving  age 
of  rationalism.  He  began  his  career  as  a  satirist  of  the 
Richardsonian  novel,  and  his  Grandison  der  Zweite  (1760- 
62) — later  remodelled  as  Der  deutsche  Grandison — was,  like 
Wieland's  first  novel,  an  imitation  of  Don  Quixote.  Nicolai's 
Sebaldus  Nothanker  (1773-76)  has  already  been  mentioned, 
and  A.  von  Knigge  (17 5  2-96)  was  practically  the  last  writer 
of  eminence  who  took  Richardson  as  his  model.  His  Roman 
meines  Lebens  appeared  in  1781-82,  and  was  followed  by 
several  similar  romances,  the  best  of  which  is  Die  Reise  nach 
Braunschweig  (i792).3  More  popular  than  Knigge's  novels 
was  his  Uber  den  Umgang  mit  Menschen  (1788),  a  practical 
treatise  on  the  rules  of  social  intercourse  in  the  period 
before  the  French  Revolution.  The  Austrian  novelist,  A. 
G.  Meissner  (1753-1807),  author  of  a  classical  novel, 
Alcibiades  (1781-88),  and  of  a  voluminous  collection  of 
anecdotes  and  sketches  (Skizzen,  14  vols.,  1778-96),  had 
something  of  Wieland's  temperament,  while  the  Saxon,  A.  F. 
E.  Langbein  (1757-1835),  a  talented  versifier,  at  least  shared 
the  latter's  taste  for  witty  and  frivolous  themes. 

The    pedagogic  and    humanistic    ideals   of   the  eighteenth 

1  Cp.  E.  Schmidt,  Richardson,  Rousseau  und  Goethe,  Jena,  1875. 

2  Ed.  M.  Muller  in  the  Bibl.  der  deutschen  Nationallitt.,  3,  4,  Leipzig,  1868. 
Cp.  D.N.L.,57,  153  ff- 

•  On  Knigge,  cp.  D.N.L.,  136,  197  ff.      Uter  den  Umgang  mit  Menschen 
will  be  found  in  Reclam's  Univ.  Bibl.,  No.  1138-40. 


CHAP.  V.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  2QI 

century,  which  had  been  first  embodied  in  the  moralising 
weekly  journals,  thus  passed  over  into  the  fiction  of  the  time. 
It  was  not,  however,  long  before  the  novel  sought  to  free 
itself  from  such  utilitarian  aims,  and  the  didactic  tendencies 
so  deeply  ingrained  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  century  had 
to  find  another  outlet.  The  heritage  of  the  weekly  journals,  Popular 
refused  by  the  novelists,  now  fell  to  a  class  of  writers  Phll°.~ 
known  in  Germany  as  "  Popularphilosophen."  Towards  the  writings, 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  voluminous  literature  arose, 
which  aimed  at  presenting  the  philosophic  ideas  and  educa- 
tional schemes  of  the  time  in  a  popular  and  attractive  form. 
Such  works,  although  outside  the  province  of  a  literary 
history,  cannot  be  altogether  ignored ;  for  they  were  often 
the  channels  by  which  ideas  of  far-reaching  importance  found 
their  way  into  poetry.  Moreover,  several  popular  philo- 
sophers of  this  period  assisted  materially  in  moulding  German 
prose. 

Of  the  older  group  of  "  Popularphilosophen,"  J.  G.  Zimmer-  J.  G.  Zim- 
mann  (17 28-95) l  unquestionably  deserves  the  first  place. 
Although  by  birth  a  Swiss,  he  spent  the  latter  part  of 
his  life  in  Hanover,  where  he  was  physician  to  the  King  of 
England.  His  reputation  rests  upon  two  remarkable  books, 
Betrachtungen  iiber  die  Einsamkeit  (1756;  subsequently  en- 
larged, 1784-85)  and  Von  dem  Nationalstolzc  (1758),  which 
must  be  numbered  among  the  most  suggestive  prose  works  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Besides  a  warm  sympathy  for  the 
ideas  of  Rousseau,  they  show  wide  reading  and  a  ripeness  of 
judgment,  which  formed  a  marked  contrast  to  the  unbalanced 
enthusiasm  of  the  "Geniezeit."  As  he  grew  old,  Zimmer- 
mann  became  a  bitter  opponenj  of  the  rationalistic  philosophy, 
and  thus  helped  to  further  the  interests  of  Romanticism. 
To  two  writers  who  are  usually  associated  with  Zimmermann, 
Thomas  Abbt  and  Justus  Moser,  we  shall  return  in  the  next 
chapter. 

G.  C.  Lichtenberg  (i  742-99) 2  belongs  to  a  younger  genera-  G.  C.  Lich- 
tion  than  Zimmermann.     From  1769  on,  he  was  Professor  of 
Physics  in  Gottingen  and  took  a  prominent  position  among 
the  scientists  of  his  time.     But  his  talents  were  as  many-sided 

1  In  Fabeldichter,  Saliriker  und  Popularphilosophen,  ed.  J.  Minor  (D.N.L., 
73  [1884]),  331  ff.     Cp.  R.  Ischer,  /.  G.  '/.immermann,  Berne,  1893. 

2  Lichtenberg's   Vermischte  Srhriften,  8  vols.,  Gottingen,  1844-46;  a  selec- 
tion, edited  by  F.  Bobertag,  in  D.N.L.,  141  [1886]. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

as  his  interests.  In  the  course  of  two  visits  to  England  in 
1769  and  1774  (Brief e  aus  England,  1776  and  1778),  he 
came  into  touch  with  the  English  scientific  and  literary  world, 
and  was  particularly  attracted  by  the  English  theatre,  where 
Garrick's  star  was  then  in  the  ascendancy.  As  a  humourist 
and  satirist,  his  genius  was  of  a  high  order ;  indeed,  no  writer 
has  a  better  claim  than  he  to  be  called  the  greatest  satirist 
of  modern  German  literature.  Had  he  chosen,  Lichtenberg 
might  have  been  a  German  Swift,  but  instead,  his  powers  were 
frittered  away  in  trivial  and  ephemeral  work,  and  almost  the 
only  book  by  which  he  is  now  remembered  is  a  masterly 
commentary  on  Hogarth,  the  Ausfiihrliche  Erklarung  der 
Hogarthischen  Kupferstiche  (1794-99). 

T.  G.  von  Hardly  another  minor  writer  of  this  age  can  boast  of 
1741^06  so  lastmg  a  popularity  as  T.  G.  von  Hippel  (1741-96). 
Personally,  Hippel  was  one  of  those  problematic  natures  in 
which  the  nineteenth  century  takes  a  more  sympathetic  interest 
than  his  own  contemporaries  could  possibly  have  taken,  and 
something  of  the  contrasts  and  contradictions  of  his  life 
and  personality  have  passed  over  into  his  writings.  Uber 
die  Ehe  (1774),  his  best-known  book,  is  a  strange  apologia 
for  marriage  by  one  who  was  himself  unmarried ;  even  his 
novels,  of  which  Lebenslaufe  nach  aufsteigender  Linie  (1778) 
is  mainly  autobiographical,  are  still  readable  at  the  present 
day.1 

The  strong  pedagogic  interests  of  the  age  that  produced 
Rousseau's  Emile  (1762)  were  represented  in  Germany  by 
J.  B.  Basedow  (1723-90)  and  J.  H.  Pestalozzi  (1746-1827) 
— the  latter,  a  native  of  Zurich.  Pestalozzi's  Lienhard  und 
Gertrud  (1781)  remains  one  ,of  the  classics  of  educational 
science.  Popular  philosophers  in  the  stricter  sense  of  the 
word  were  Christian  Garve  (1742-98),  whose  teaching  smacks 
of  the  homely  ethics  of  Gellert,  and  J.  J.  Engel  (1741-1802), 
who  was  also  the  author  of  a  popular  novel,  Herr  Lorenz 
Stark,  ein  Charaktergemdlde  (i795).2 

1  Cp.  D.N.L.,  141,  195  ff.  A  modernised  version  of  the  Lebenslaufe,  by  A. 
von  Ottingen,  has  reached  a  third  edition,  Leipzig,  1892.  Uber  die  Ehe,  edited 
by  E.  Brenning,  in  the  Bibl.  der  deutschen.  Nationallitt.,  36,  Leipzig,  1872. 

a  Cp.  F.  Bobiertag,  Erzdhlende  Prosa.  der  klassischen  Periode,  i  (D.N.L., 
*36)i  317  ff-I  also  in  Reclam's  Univ.  Bibl.,  No.  216. 


293 


CHAPTER    VI. 


HERDER;   THE  GOTTINGEN  BUND. 

THE  line  that  separates  the  age  of  Rationalism  from  the 
new  movement  which  began  in  Germany  as  "Sturm  und 
Drang,"  might  be  said  to  pass  between  Lessing's  Littera- 
turbriefe  and  the  Fragmente  of  Herder.  Lessing,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  is  the  representative  writer  of  the  "  Auf- 
klarung."  With  Herder,  on  the  other  hand,  the  new  epoch 
opens  ;  he  is  the  gatekeeper  of  the  nineteenth  century.  As 
a  maker  of  literature,  a  poet,  he  does  not,  it  is  true,  take 
rank  beside  the  masters  of  German  poetry ;  but  as  a  spiritual 
force  and  intellectual  innovator,  he  is  second  to  none.  The 
whole  fabric  of  German  thought  and  literature  at  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century  would  have  been  lacking  in  stability 
without  the  broad  and  solid  basis  afforded  by  his  work. 

Johann  Friedrich  Herder,1  an  East  Prussian,  was  born 
in  the  village  of  Morungen  on  August  25,  1744.  His 
childhood  was  embittered  by  privations,  his  school-life  was 
one  long  tyranny.  He  was  able,  however,  to  attend  the 
university,  where  he  began  by  studying  medicine,  but  soon 
found  theology  more  to  his  taste.  It  is  significant  that  the 
first  influence  under  which  he  fell  was  that  of  Immanuel  Kant, 
who  laid  in  the  young  student's  mind  the  foundation  of  the 
method,  by  means  of  which  he  revolutionised  at  a  later  date 
the  science  of  history.  In  Konigsberg  he  also  came  into 
immediate  personal  relations  with  J.  G.  Hamann  (1730-88), 

1  R.  Haym,  Herder  nnch  seinem  Leben  un  f  seine n  Werken,  2  vols.,  Berlin, 
1877-85 ;  E.  Kiihnemann,  Herders  Leden,  Munich,  1895.  The  standard  edi- 
tion ot  Herder's  Sdmmtliche  Werke  is  that  edited  by  B.  Suphan,  32  vols., 
Berlin,  1877  ff.  A  selection  (10  vols.)  in  D.N.L.,  74-78  [1885-94],  ed.  by  H. 
Meyer,  H.  Lambel,  and  E.  Kiihnemann. 


Lessing 

and 

Herder. 


J.  F. 

Herder, 
1744-1803. 


J.  G. 

Hamann, 
1730-88. 


294 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


the  "  Magus  im  Norden." l  Hamann  was  a  strange  way- 
ward genius,  who,  after  an  aimless,  penurious  youth,  became 
suddenly  aware  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  Bible,  while  on 
a  visit  to  London  in  1758.  Returning  to  Konigsberg,  his 
native  town,  he  began  to  read  and  study  with  untiring  zeal. 
His  writings — the  chief  of  which  are  Sokratische  Denkwiirdig- 
keiten  (1759),  and  Kreuzziige  des  Philologen  (1762) — are  all 
fragmentary  and  full  of  strange,  often  startling,  ideas  in 
aphoristic  form.  His  fervid  enthusiasm,  his  championship  of 
genius,  his  insistence  on  a  man  facing  life  and  its  tasks  with 
his  whole  collective  energy,  and  not  acting  by  halves,  made 
his  sybilline  utterances  popular  with  the  new  generation  of 
"  Stiirmer  und  Dranger."  To  Hamann,  Herder  owed  his 
acquaintance  with  English  literature,  especially  Ossian  and 
Shakespeare,  and  with  Hamann's  aid  he  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing a  position  in  the  "Domschule"  in  Riga.  Here  he  spent 
five  years  (1764-69)  of  unremitting  work. 

Herder's  In    1767,   the  third   year   of  his    residence  in   Riga,   the 

Fragmente,  pragmente  iiber  die  neuere  deutsche  Litteratur  were  pub- 
lished anonymously  as  "  Beilagen "  or  supplements  to  the 
Litteratur  brief e.  Lessing's  share  in  this  latter  publication 
had  come  to  an  end  as  early  as  1760,  but  the  journal 
continued  to  appear  until  the  middle  of  1765,  owing 
mainly  to  the  co-operation  of  a  new  writer,  Thomas  Abbt 
(1738-66),  who  is  now  only  remembered  as  the  author 
of  two  books,  Vom  Tode  fiirs  Vaterland  (1761)  and  Vom 
Verdiemte  (1765).  Abbt  may  be  regarded  as  the  connecting- 
link  between  Lessing  and  Herder ;  it  was  his  warm  enthusi- 
asm, rather  than  Lessing's  cold,  critical  genius,  that  attracted 
Herder  in  the  Litter aturbriefe.  Abbt  was  a  pioneer  in  the 
study  of  history  on  principles  of  organic  development,  a 
study  which  Herder  and  Justus  Moser  first  illustrated  prac- 
tically. The  standpoint  of  the  Fragmente  is  not  essentially 
different  from  that  of  the  Litteraturbriefe,  except  perhaps 
with  regard  to  Klopstock,  whom  Herder  champions  more 
warmly ;  but  the  two  publications  follow  opposite  methods. 
The  Litteraturbriefe  were  in  the  first  place  critical ;  they  had 
little  to  say  of  general  theories  or  ideas.  Herder's  Frag- 


T.  Abbt, 

1738-66. 


1  Cp.  J.  Claassen,  Hamanns  Leben  und  Werkc,  Giitersloh,  1885,  and  J. 
Minor,  J.  G.  Hamann  in  seiner  Bedeutung  fitr  die  Sturm-  ttnd  Drangperiode, 
Frankfort,  1881. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  295 

mente,  on  the  other  hand,  begin  with  the  exposition  of  ideas, 
and  only  criticise  by  the  way ;  they  are  leavened  with  a  spirit 
of  enthusiasm,  and  betray  in  every  line  the  personality  of  their 
author.  The  germs  of  many  of  Herder's  chief  opinions  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Fragmente — his  ideas  on  language,  for  instance, 
on  the  relation  of  his  own  to  other  literatures,  on  the  "  Volks- 
lied."  His  next  work,  Kritische  Wdlder  (1769)  —  the  title  Kritische 
being  an  imitation  of  Quintilian's  "sylvae" — is  of  a  more 
polemical  nature.  In  the  first  "  Waldchen,"  which  discusses 
Lessing's  Laokoon,  Herder's  instinctive  antagonism  to  his  pre- 
decessor is  more  marked  than  in  the  Fragmente,  while  the 
second  and  third  volumes  are  occupied  with  the  antiquarian 
Klotz,  who  raised  Lessing's  ire. 

In  the  summer  of  1769,  Herder  was  able  to  leave  Riga,  Herder's 
the  provincialism  of  which  had  begun  to  weigh  heavily  ^^f/1 
upon  him ;  he  proceeded  by  sea  to  Nantes  and  spent  nearly  1769. 
five  months  in  France.  The  most  interesting  work  of  this 
period,  and,  in  some  respects,  the  most  interesting  of  all  that 
Herder  wrote,  is  his  Journal  meiner  Reise  im  Jahre  1769.  It 
is  a  record  of  the  most  magnificent  literary,  aesthetic,  and 
political  dreams  that  ever  haunted  the  brain  of  man,  and 
through  them  all  runs  the  fundamental  idea  of  Herder's 
intellectual  life,  the  conception  of  the  human  race  and 
human  culture  as  a  product  of  historical  evolution.  Herder's 
writings  can  be  described  as  at  best  only  a  collection  of 
fragments,  but  a  certain  plan  is  behind  them  all;  they  are 
fragments  of  one  great  work  on  the  evolution  of  mankind ; 
to  make  this  evolution  of  human  history  clear  was  the 
aim  of  Herder's  life.  At  the  end  of  his  visit  to  France, 
he  was  appointed  travelling-tutor  to  the  son  of  the  Prince- 
bishop  of  Liibeck ;  but  this  appointment  came  to  an 
end  hardly  a  year  later  in  Strassburg,  where  Herder  arrived  in  Strass- 
with  his  pupil  in  September,  1770.  Relieved  of  his  duties, 
he  took  the  opportunity  of  placing  himself  under  the  hands 
of  an  eye -specialist  in  Strassburg  —  he  suffered  from  a 
growth  in  one  of  the  lachrymal  glands  —  before  settling 
down  as  pastor  in  the  little  town  of  Biickeburg.  The  winter 
which  he  spent  in  Strassburg  (1770-71)  was  of  importance, 
for  from  it  may  be  said  to  date  the  origin  of  the  movement 
known  as  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  During  these  months  in 
Strassburg,  Goethe  sat  at  Herder's  feet  and  learned  the  new 


296 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


yon 

deutscher 
Art  und 
Kunst, 
1773- 


J.  Moser, 
1720-94. 


Volkslie- 
der,  1778- 
79- 


faith  from  his  lips.  Herder  opened  the  young  poet's  eyes 
to  the  greatness  of  Shakespeare,  revealed  to  him  the  treasures 
of  national  poetry  in  the  songs  of  the  people,  and  endowed 
the  traceries  of  the  Gothic  cathedral  above  their  heads  with 
a  new  meaning  and  -a  new  gospel.  In  this  momentous 
period  and  the  few  years  that  immediately  followed,  Herder 
was  a  force  of  the  first  magnitude  in  German  literature,  a 
force  that  it  is  impossible  to  overestimate.  Of  his  writings 
at  this  time  the  most  important  were  a  prize  essay,  Uber 
den  Ursprung  der  Sprache  (1772),  and  his  contributions 
to  Von  deutscher  Art  und  Kunst  (I773).1  The  latter  work, 
in  which  Goethe  and  Moser  also  had  a  share,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  manifesto  of  the  German  "  Sturm  und  Drang." 
Justus  Moser  (1720-94),  a  native  of  Westphalia,  who  spent 
a  considerable  part  of  his  life  in  London,  was  another 
pioneer  of  the  coming  time ;  his  Osnabrtickische  Geschichte, 
which  began  to  appear  in  1765,  was  the  earliest  historical  work 
written  from  the  modern  standpoint  of  organic  development. 
He  stimulated  even  in  a  higher  degree  than  Klopstock  the 
interest  of  the  German  people  in  their  own  past ;  he  realised 
what  Abbt  had  not  lived  to  complete.  Moser's  Patriotische 
Phantasien  (1774)  2  were  richer  in  ideas  for  the  political  well- 
being  and  progress  of  the  nation  than  any  other  book  of 
this  eventful  time. 

In  1778  and  1779,  Herder  published  a  collection  of  popular 
songs  and  ballads  of  many  nations,  entitled  Volkslieder? 
This  work  opened  the  eyes  of  the  German  people  to  the 
poetic  worth  of  the  Volkslied ;  and  it  was,  at  the  same  time, 
characteristic  of  the  new  standpoint  which  Herder  held  with 
regard  to  criticism.  While  a  critic  of  the  older  generation, 
like  Lessing,  set,  for  instance,  less  value  on  a  popular  ballad 
than  on  an  epigram,  Herder  gave  the  Volkslied  its  true  place 
in  literary  history.  In  the  songs  which  he  took  over  from 
foreign  literatures,  he  proved  himself  an  admirable  translator, 
but  he  lacked  the  creative  faculty  of  the  poet ;  his  original 
poems,  his  lyric  dramas,  of  which  Brutus  (1774)  was  written 
in  these  years,  are  reminiscent  of  Klopstock.  Of  the  prose 

1  Werke,  5.     A  convenient  reprint  of  Von  deutscher  Art  und  Kunst,  ed.  H. 
Lambel,  in  the  Litteraturdenkmale,  40,  41,  Stuttgart,  1892. 

2  Ed.  R.  Zollner,  in  the .#/£/.  der  deuischen  Nationalist.,  32,  33,  Leipzig,  1871. 

3  Werke,  25  ;  the  title  Stimmtn  der  Volker  was  given  to  the  collection  by 
J.  von  Miiller,  the  first  editor  of  Herder's  works. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  297 

writings  of  this  period,  the  most  noteworthy  is  a  book  which 
appeared  in  1774,  under  the  title  Auch  eine  Philosophic  der 
Geschichte  zur  Bildung  der  Menschheit.  .A  better  example 
could  hardly  be  found  of  the  peculiarly  germinating  qualities 
of  Herder's  thought — and  no  thinker  of  the  eighteenth  century 
scattered  so  many  suggestive  ideas  abroad  as  he — than  this 
little  book.  Many  of  the  ideas  here  set  forth  reappear  in  the 
literature  and  philosophy  of  the  Romantic  movement  in  the 
following  generation.  To  1774  belongs  also  the  first  part 
of  the  Alteste  Urkunde  des  Menschengeschlechts,  a  work,  how- 
ever, which  is  too  immediately  a  product  of  the  "  Sturm  und 
Drang "  to  have  had  permanent  worth.  Herder's  theological 
writings,  such  as  the  Provinzialblatter  an  Prediger  (1774)  and 
the  Brief e,  das  Studium  der  Theologie  betreffend  (1780-81), 
carry  into  the  field  of  religion  the  passionate  battle  which, 
in  literature,  he  waged  against  the  spirit  of  the  "  Aufklarung." 
In  1776,  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  Weimar  as  general  Call  to 
superintendent  or  chief  pastor.  This  welcome  release  from  Weimar- 
Biickeburg  he  owed  to  his  old  pupil  Goethe.  And  in 
Weimar  he  wrote  his  most  important  book,  Ideen  zur  Phil- 
osophic der  Geschichte  der  Menschheit,  which  was  published  ideen  zur 
in  four  parts  between  1784  and  I7QI.1  This  is,  at  least,  an  p^los°- 

i  i  (  •  •  i  •    ,      TT       -i  Phte 

approach  to  the  comprehensive  treatise  which  Herder  always 
dreamed  of  writing;  it  contains  the  fullest  statement  of  his 
views  on  the  subject  of  historical  evolution.  But  the  im- 
portance of  the  Ideen  extends  beyond  the  individual  writer ; 
the  work  forms,  we  might  even  say,  an  intellectual  bridge 
between  the  two  centuries.  Herder's  conception  of  the 
history  of  humanity  was,  on  the  one  hand,  like  that  of 
Lessing,  of  Rousseau,  and  of  all  the  leading  thinkers  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  pedagogic  one ;  he  conceived  the  human 
race  as  undergoing  a  process  of  education  towards  an  ideal 
humanism.  But  he  went  a  step  further ;  he  regarded  this 
educative  process  from  the  standpoint  of  historical  evolution, 
and  herein  lies  his  claim  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
founders  of  modern  historical  science. 

Before  the  publication  of  the  Ideen,  perhaps  even  before 
he  received  the  call  to  Weimar,  Herder  had  ceased  to  be  an 
active  power  in  the  world  of  letters ;  certainly  from  about 

1  Werke,  13,  14 ;  a  convenient  edition  by  J.  Schmidt  in  Bibl.  der  deutschen 
Nationallitt.,  23-25,  Leipzig,  1869,  and  in  D.N.L.,  77  (3  vols.) 


298 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Antagon- 
ism to 
Kant. 


Der  Cid, 
1805. 


The"G6t- 
tinger 
Dichter- 
bund." 


H.  C.  Boie, 
1744-1806, 
F.  W. 
Cotter, 
1746  97. 


1780  on,  he  fell  rapidly  behind  the  intellectual  movement. 
His  later  philosophical  writings  are  filled  with  a  petty  spirit 
of  antagonism  towards  his  first  teacher,  Kant,  for  whose 
development  he  had  neither  understanding  nor  sympathy ; 
even  his  relations  with  Goethe  and  Schiller  were  strained  for 
a  time.  But  in  the  last  year  or  two  of  his  life — he  died  in 
Weimar  on  the  i8th  of  December,  1803 — he  asserted  himself 
once  more  with  a  work  of  genuine  poetry,  a  translation  of  the 
Spanish  "  Volkslieder "  which  centre  in  the  Cid  Campeador. 
Der  Cid:  nach  Spanischen  Romanzen  bcsungen  (iSc^)1  is 
Herder's  finest  poetic  achievement  and  one  of  the  abiding 
treasures  of  German  ballad  literature. 

Before  passing  on  to  consider  the  movement  which  is 
most  immediately  associated  with  Herder's  work,  the  "  Sturm 
und  Drang,"  we  must  first  turn  to  a  group  of  writers  who 
stood  somewhat  apart  from  the  main  stream,  namely,  the 
members  of  the  "  Gottinger  Hain "  or  "  Bund."  The  word 
"  Hain  "  at  once  suggests  an  affinity  with  the  "  bards "  who 
looked  up  to  Klopstock  as  their  master,2  and  it  is,  indeed, 
as  a  development  of  the  school  of  Klopstock  that  the 
Gottingen  poets  are  to  be  regarded 

The  "Gottinger  Hain"  was  founded  in  1772,  but  the 
Gottinger  Musenalmanach,  which  ultimately  became  the  organ 
of  the  "  Hain,"  had  begun  to  appear  nearly  three  years  earlier. 
A  French  Almanac  des  Muses,  which  had  been  published 
annually  since  1765,  served  as  model  for  the  first  Gottinger 
Musenalmanach  fur  das  Jahr  I77O,3  and  its  founders,  H.  C. 
Boie  (1744-1806)  and  F.  W.  Cotter  (1746-97),*  had  un- 
doubtedly something  similar  in  view.  Gotter,  in  particular, 
had  pronounced  Gallic  tastes,  and  his  dramas  are,  for  the 
most  part,  adaptations  from  the  French.  His  connection  with 
the  Almanack  did  not,  however,  last  long;  in  1775,  Voss 
edited  it,  then,  for  three  years,  Gockingk,  who  in  turn  gave 
place  to  Burger.  With  this  publication  virtually  begins  a  new 

1  Ed.  J.  Schmidt  in  Bibl.  der  deutschen  Nationallitt.,  15,  Leipzig,  1868  ;  in 
D.N.L.,  75. 

2  Cp.  Klopstock's  ode,  Der  Htigel  und  der  Hain  (  Werke,  ed.  R.  Hamel,  3, 
HO)- 

3  Reprints  of  the  Gottinger  Almanack  from   1770  to   1772,  edited  by  C. 
Redlich,  will  be  found  in  the  Litter aturdenkmale,   No.  49  f.,   52  f.,  64  f., 
Stuttgart,  1894-97. 

«  Cp.  K.  Weinhold,  H.  C.  Boie,  Halle,  1868,  and  R.  Schlosser,  F.  W. 
Cotter,  Hamburg,  1895. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  299 

chapter  in  the  history  of  the  German  lyric ;  the  first  Gottinger 
Almanack  was  the  forerunner  of  many  others,  which,  until  well 
into  the  next  century,  formed  the  favourite  receptacle  for 
original  poetry.  The  consecration  of  the  "  Gottinger  Bund," 
which  originated  in  the  meetings  of  several  gifted  young 
students,  to  whom  Boie  acted  as  mentor,  took  place  on  the 
1 2th  of  September,  1772.  Voss,  Holty,  the  brothers  Miller, 
and  two  others,  had  gone  out  in  the  evening  to  a  village  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Gottingen,  probably  Weende. 

"  Der  Abend  war  ausserordentlich  heiter,"  wrote  Voss  to  a 
friend,  "  und  der  Mond  voll.  Wir  iiberliessen  uns  ganz  den  Emp- 
findungen  der  schb'nen  Natur.  Wir  assen  in  einer  Bauerhiitte  eine 
Milch,  und  begaben  uns  darauf  ins  freie  Feld.  Hier  fanden  wir 
einen  kleinen  Eichengrund,  und  sogleich  fiel  uns  alien  ein  ;  den 
Bund  der  Freundschaft  unter  diesen  heiligen  Baumen  zu  schworen. 
Wir  umkranzten  die  Hiite  mit  Eichenlaub,  legten  sie  unter  den 
Baum,  fassten  uns  alle  bei  den  Handen,  tanzten  so  um  den  ein- 
geschlossenen  Stamm  herum, — riefen  den  Mond  und  die  Sterne 
zu  Zeugen  unseres  Bundes  an,  und  versprachen  uns  eine  ewige 
Freundschaft."  1 

Johann  Heinrich  Voss  (i 751-1826) 2  was  not  the  most  j.  H.  Voss, 
inspired  of  this  little  group,  but  he  was  the  representative  poet  i7 
and  the  chief  of  the  "  Bund."  After  a  youth  of  extreme  priva- 
tion— he  was  a  native  of  Mecklenburg — he  attracted  Boie's 
attention  by  some  verses  sent  to  the  Almanack,  and  the 
latter  made  it  possible  for  him  to  study  at  the  University  of 
Gottingen.  Here  Voss  devoted  himself  zealously  to  classical 
philology  and  to  poetry.  In  1776,  he  retired  to  Wandsbeck, 
where  he  lived  a  couple  of  years  on  the  scanty  income 
brought  in  by  literary  work.  From  1782  to  1802,  he  was  a 
schoolmaster  in  Eutin ;  in  1802,  we  find  him  in  Jena,  and 
in  1805,  he  was  appointed  professor  in  Heidelberg,  where 
he  died  in  1826.  Voss's  literary  work  does  not  cover  a 
wide  range,  and  the  bulk  of  it  rarely  rises  above  a  certain 
homely  mediocrity.  Voss  had,  in  fact,  too  much  common- 
sense  to  be  a  great  poet ;  he  never  lost  touch  with  the 
prosaic  realities  of  daily  life.  In  later  years,  this  essenti- 
ally unpoetic  side  of  his  nature,  combined  with  a  boorish- 
ness  of  manner  which  he  never  lost,  brought  him  into  dis- 

1  Bricfevon  J.  H.  Voss,  edited  by  A.  Voss,  Leipzig,  1840,  i,  91  f. 
a  Der  Gottinger  Dichterbund,  herausg.  von  A.  Sauer,  i  (D.N.L.,  49  [1887]). 
Cp.  W.  Herbst, /.  H.  Voss,  avols.,  Leipzig,  1872-76. 


300  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

agreeable  conflict  with  the  younger  Heidelberg  Romanticists. 
Apart  from  his  leadership  of  the  "  Gottinger  Dichterbund," 
Voss  owes  his  place  in  German  literature  to  his  translations 
from  the  Greek  and  Latin,  and  to  his  Idylls — above  all,  to 
the  finest  of  them,  Luise,  which  served  Goethe  as  a  model 
for  Hermann  und  Dorothea. 

Voss's  The   version    of  Homers    Odussee,   which   Voss   published 

Homer,  jn  ^gi,1  is  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  German  translation; 
although  unequal,  and  occasionally  disfigured  by  harsh  and 
un-German  constructions,  it  remains,  in  essentials,  the  most 
perfect  rendering  of  Homer  into  a  modern  tongue.  It  is, 
indeed,  surprising  that  this  Mecklenburg  peasant,  with  his 
homely  ideas  of  poetry  and  life,  should  have  been  able  to 
convey,  not  merely  the  meaning,  but  the  spirit,  the  primitive 
harmony  and  almost  the  music,  of  the  Homeric  epic  in  his 
translation.  In  Voss's  translation,  Homer  became  almost  as 
complete  a  possession  of  the  German  people  as  Shakespeare 
in  that  of  Schlegel.  The  version  of  the  Iliad  did  not  appear 
for  twelve  years  after  that  of  the  Odyssey  (1793),  and,  owing 
to  the  translator's  striving  after  philological  accuracy,  is  de- 
ficient in  the  freshness  that  characterised  the  latter.  The 
same  fault  disfigures  more  or  less  all  Voss's  later  classic  trans- 
lations, as  well  as  the  second  edition  of  the  Odyssey  (1793). 
His  final  work  was  a  version  of  Shakespeare,  in  which  he  was 
assisted  by  his  sons  (9  vols.,  1818-39). 

His  When  we  turn  to  Voss's  Idyllen  2  (first  collected  edition  in 

Idyllen.  the  Qtfafa^  I785),  it  is  difficult  to  realise  that  little  over 
twenty  years  had  elapsed  since  Gessner's  last  volume  of  Neue 
Idyllen  found  admiring  readers.  Between  the  sentimental  and 
artificial  shepherds  and  shepherdesses  of  Gessner  and  the  in- 
tensely realistic  figures  of  Voss,  at  least  a  century  would  seem 
to  have  intervened.  In  the  idylls  of  the  two  poets,  it  is  not 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  which  touch,  but  the 
seventeenth  and  nineteenth.  In  less  than  a  generation,  the 
word  "  Idyll "  had  undergone  a  complete  change  of  meaning ; 
a  new  spirit  was  abroad,  a  spirit  that  sought  to  base  literature 
once  more  upon  the  realities  of  life,  and,  instead  of  the  con- 
ventional figures  of  the  Renaissance  pastoral,  Voss,  whose 

1  Cp.  the  edition  by  M.  Bernays,  Stuttgart,  1881. 

2  Edited  by  K.  Goedeke  (Bib  1.  der  deutschen  Nalionallitt.,  26).  Leipzig, 
1869. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  301 

model  was  the  Idylls  of  Theocritus,  gives  us  villagers,  country 
schoolmasters,  and  pastors.  The  homely  world  of  the  German 
social  novel  is  here  embellished  by  a  poetry  that  is  hardly  less 
homely.  Luise,  ein  Idndliches  Gedicht  in  drey  Idyllen  (1784),  Luise, 
is  Voss's  most  popular  work.  The  subject  of  the  poem  is  the  I784> 
courtship  and  wedding  of  Luise  and  a  young  pastor,  but  this 
forms  only  the  thread  which  holds  the  various  scenes  together. 
These  scenes  are  painted  with  both  truth  and  humour,  and 
give  a  faithful  picture  of  life  in  a  country  parsonage,  at  a 
time  when  rationalism  was  still  a  dominant  force  in  religious 
thought.  But  one  misses  here,  as  in  all  Voss's  writings, 
poetic  tact ;  his  striving  after  realistic  simplicity  and  his  love 
of  detail  often  lead  him  into  absurdities,  and  even  his  humour 
is  not  always  in  good  taste.  None  the  less,  by  associating  the 
idyll  with  the  Greek  epic,  he  became  the  creator  of  a  new 
genre  in  German  poetry ;  as  Schiller  said,1  he  not  only  en- 
riched the  literature,  but  also  widened  it.  His  other  idylls 
have  been  unduly  overshadowed  by  Luise>  but  one,  at  least, 
Der  siebzigste  Geburtstag,  which  appeared  in  the  Almanack 
for  1781,  is  worthy  of  a  place  beside  it. 

The  most  gifted  lyric  poet  of  the  Gottingen  circle  was  un- 
doubtedly Ludwig  H.  C.  Holty  (i748-76),2  whose  unhappy  L.  H.  c. 
life  was  cut  short  by  consumption  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight.   Holty>6 
In   the  simple  elegiac  songs  and  odes  which   Holty  wrote 
after  his  association  with  the  Bund  (Gedichte,  first  collected, 
1782-83),  there  is  lyric  inspiration  of  the  highest  order.     But 
it  is  poetry  which  suggests  a  comparison  with  Uz  rather  than 
with  Goethe.     In  verses,  such  as  the  following,  from  the  poem 
Lebenspflichten  (1776): — 

' '  Rosen  auf  den  Weg  gestreut, 
Und  des  Harms  vergessen ! 
Eine  kleine  Spanne  Zeit 
Ward  uns  zugemessen. 

Heute  hiipft  im  Friihlingstanz 

Noch  der  frohe  Knabe; 
Morgen  weht  der  Todtenkranz 

Schon  auf  seinem  Grabe,"  3 


1  Ober  naive  und  sentimentalische  Dichtung(  Werke,  10),  489. 

2  Cp.  A.  Sauer,  I.e.,  2  (D.N.L.,  50,  i  [1894]).     Holly's  Gedichte  have  also 
been  edited  by  K.  Halm  (Bibl.  der  deutschen  Nationalist.,  29),  Leipzig,  1870. 

3  A.  Sauer's  edition,  2,  112. 


302 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


J.  M. 

Miller, 
1750-1814. 


C.  zu  Stol- 
berg,  1748- 
1821. 
F.  L.  zu 
Stolberg, 
1750-1819. 


M.  Clau- 
dius, 1740- 
1815. 


an  unmistakable  echo  is  to  be  heard  of  the  classic  Anacre- 
ontic. At  the  same  time,  Holty  obviously  belonged  to  a 
generation  which  stood  on  a  more  intimate  footing  with  nature 
than  did  the  Halle  school.  His  lyrics  were  not  always  as 
polished  as  Uz's,  but  the  tragic  melancholy  that  pervades  them 
was,  at  least,  sincere. 

Only  one  other  member  of  the  little  group  of  poets 
who  danced  round  the  oak-tree  in  September,  1772,  has  a 
claim  upon  our  attention  here — namely,  the  Swabian,  J.  M. 
Miller  (i  7  50-1 8 14), l  who  had  come  to  Gottingen  to  study 
theology.  Many  of  the  songs  which  Miller  contributed  to 
the  Almanachs — his  Gedichte  did  not  appear  in  a  collected 
edition  until  1783 — became  veritable  Volkslieder,  but  he  is 
now  best  remembered  as  the  author  of  Siegwart,  a  charac- 
teristic novel  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  to  which  we  shall 
return.  In  December,  1772,  three  months  after  the  found- 
ing of  the  "  Hain,"  two  new  members,  the  brothers  Christian 
and  Friedrich  Leopold,  Grafen  zu  Stolberg  (,i  748  -1821 
and  I75o-i8i9),2  joined  the  circle,  and  infused  new  life 
into  it  by  bringing  it  into  closer  relations  with  Klopstock. 
Neither  had  much  genius,  but,  caught  up  and  carried 
along  by  the  revolutionary  spirit  of  the  time,  they  wrote 
rhetorical  odes  against  tyrants,  and  sang  paeons  in  honour  of 
their  fatherland.  A  volume  of  Gedichte  by  both  brothers 
appeared  in  1779.  Their  talents,  however,  show  to  most 
advantage  in  their  translations  from  the  Greek.  Amongst 
other  things,  Christian  made  a  German  version  of  Sofokles 
(1787),  while  Friedrich,  whose  literary  work  is  the  more 
voluminous  and  important,  translated  the  Ilias  (1778),  Auser- 
lesene  Gesprdche  des  Platon  (1796-97),  and — as  late  as  1806 
— Die  Gedichte  von  Ossian. 

Besides  these  poets  of  the  Gottingen  "  Hain,"  a  few  other 
writers  have  to  be  considered,  who,  although  not  actually 
members  of  the  Bund,  belonged  to  the  same  group ;  they 
are  Claudius,  Gockingk,  and,  most  famous  of  all,  Burger. 
Matthias  Claudius  (1740-1815),  a  native  of  Holstein,  was  the 
oldest  of  the  three ;  simple,  unassuming,  and  pious,  he  is 
an  excellent  example  of  the  literary  man  as  produced  by  the 
homely  provincialism  of  German  life  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

1  Cp.  A.  Sauer,  I.e.,  2  (D.N.L.,  50,  i  [1894]),  117  ff. 

2  Cp.  A.  Sauer,  I.e.,  3  (D.N.L.,  50,  2  [1896] ),  i  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  303 

For  more  than  four  years,  under  the  pseudonym  "Asmus," 
Claudius  edited  Der  Wandsbecker  Bothe  (1771-75),  and,  in  the 
literary  criticism  which  he  contributed  to  it,  revealed  a  good, 
if  somewhat  unimaginative,  common-sense,  tempered  always 
by  a  genial  humour ;  he  was  fond  of  posing  as  the  champion 
of  the  people  against  both  philosopher  and  scholar.  The 
"  Wandsbeck  Messenger,"  as  he  called  himself  after  his  paper, 
is  one  of  the  lovable  personalities  of  German  literature.  He 
was  not  an  inspired  poet,  but  he  contributed  to  the  store 
of  German  "  Volkslieder  "  a  number  of  hearty,  popular  songs, 
such  as  the  Rheinweinlied  ("Bekranzt  mit  Laub  den  lieben 
vollen  Becher"),  and  the  familiar  Abendlied: — 

'*  Der  Mond  ist  aufgegangen, 
Die  goldnen  Sternlein  prangen 

Am  Himmel  hell  und  klar  ; 
Der  Wald  steht  schwarz  und  schweiget, 
Und  aus  den  Wiesen  steiget 

Der  weisse  Nebel  wunderbar."1 

His  writings — embracing,  besides  poems,  a  miscellaneous  col- 
lection of  sketches  and  anecdotes — were  published  under  the 
fantastic  title,  Asmus  omnia  sua  secum  portans,  oder  Sdmmtliche 
Werke  des  Wandsbecker  Bothen  (1775,  1790- 1812 ).2 

The  intimate  personal  relation  in  which  Leopold  F.  G.  von  L.  F.  G 
Gockingk  (i 748-1828)3  stood  to  the  Gottingen  circle  has  J 
made  it  difficult  to  measure  his  poetry  by  the  proper  standard.  1828*. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  his  verses  ought  rather  to  be  compared 
with  those  of  Wieland  and  the  older  Anacreontic  rhymers,  to 
whom  he  is  in  many  respects  akin,  than  with  the  poetry  of  his 
friends  in  Gottingen ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  in  closer  touch 
with  life  and  reality  than  the  generation  which  had  not  come 
under  Klopstock's  influence.  Gockingk's  reputation  rests  on 
his  Lieder  zweier  Liebenden  (1777)  and  his  Episteln  (first 
collected  in  the  Gedichte,  1780-82).  The  passionate  earnest- 
ness of  the  new  literature  is  not  to  be  found  in  these  poems, 
but  they  show  a  remarkable  command  of  verse  and  a  clever 
satirical  talent.  It  may  at  least  be  said  of  Gockingk  that  no 
other  German  writer  has  handled  the  "  Epistle,"  as  a  literary 
form,  so  dexterously  as  he. 

1  A.  Sauer's  edition,  284  f.,  293  f. 

2  Edited   by   C.    Redlich,   12th  ed.,   Gotha,    1882.      Cp.    W.   Herbst,  M. 
Claudius,  Gotha,  1878,  and  A.  Sauer,  I.e.,  3,  193  ff. 

3  A  selection  of  his  poetry,  edited  by  J.  Minor,  in  D.N.L.,  73  [1884],  115  ff. 


304  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

The  Gottinger  Musenalmanach  for  1774,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  the  previous  autumn,  contained  a  poem  which  has 
exerted  a  more  widespread  influence  than  any  other  short 
poem  in  the  literature  of  the  world.  This  was  the  ballad 
Burger's  of  Lenore  which  had  been  suggested  to  G.  A.  Burger  by  a 
Lenore,  LQW  Qerman  Volkslied,  similar  to  the  Scottish  ballad  of 
Sweet  William's  Ghost  in  Percy's  Reliques.  The  background 
of  the  ballad  is  the  Seven  Years'  War;  Wilhelm,  Lenore's 
lover,  has  fallen  in  the  battle  of  Prague,  and  she,  despair- 
ing of  his  return,  rebels  against  God's  Providence.  In  the 
night,  a  ghostly  rider  comes  to  her  in  the  guise  of  her 
lover  and  bids  her  mount  behind  him. 

"  Und  als  sie  sassen,  hop  !  hop  !  hop  ! 
Ging's  fort  im  sausenden  Galopp, 
Dass  Ross  und  Reiter  schnoben, 
Und  Kies  und  Funken  stoben.  .  .  . 

Wie  flogen  rechts,  wie  flogen  links 
Die  Hiigel,  Baum'  und  Hecken  ! 
Wie  flogen  links,  und  rechts,  und  links, 
Die  Dorfer,  Stadt'  und  Flecken  ! 
Graut  Liebchen  auch? — Der  Mond  scheint  hell ! 
Hurrah  !  die  Todten  reiten  schnell ! — 
Graut  Liebchen  auch  vor  Todten  ? — 
Ach  !  lass  sie  ruhn,  die  Todten  ?  " 1 — 

When  the  goal  of  the  wild  ride  is  reached,  Lenore's  com- 
panion discloses  himself  as  Death  in  person — a  skeleton 
with  hook  and  hour-glass.  The  spirits,  dancing  in  the 
moonlight,  point  the  moral : — 

"  Geduld  !  Geduld  !  Wenn's  Herz  auch  bricht  I 
Mit  Gott  im  Himmel  hadre  nicht !  " 

Like  wildfire,  this  wonderful  ballad  swept  across  Europe, 
from  Scotland  to  Poland  and  Russia,  from  Scandinavia  to 
Italy.  The  eerie  tramp  of  the  ghostly  horse  which  carries 
Lenore  to  her  doom  re-echoed  in  every  literature,  and  to 
many  a  young  sensitive  soul  was  the  poetic  revelation  of  a 
new  world.  No  production  of  the  German  "Sturm  und 
Drang" — not  even  Goethe's  Werther,  which  appeared  a  few 
months  later — was  more  stimulating  in  its  effects  on  other 
literatures  than  Burger's  Lenore;  this  ballad  did  more  than 

1  A.  Sauer's  edition,  175  ff.  ;  the  text  of  the  lines  quoted  is,  however,  that  of 
the  Almanack,  321  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  305 

any  other  single  work  towards  calling  the  Romantic  movement 
to  life  in  Europe.1 

Gottfried  August  Burger  was  born  on  the  last  night  of  the  G.  A.  Btir- 
year  1747,  at  Molmerswende,  near  Halberstadt,  and  died  at  &er>  *747- 
Gottingen  in  1794.  His  biography  describes  one  of  those 
unbalanced,  unhappy  lives  which,  from  this  time  on,  become 
so  frequent  in  German  annals :  his  passionate  temperament 
ill  adapted  him  for  the  quiet  regular  life  which  circum- 
stances demanded  of  him.  His  first  serious  mistake  was 
his  marriage,  in  1774,  to  a  lady  with  whose  sister — the 
"  Molly "  of  his  songs  —  he  was  already  passionately  in 
love.  For  a  time,  indeed,  he  carried  on  a  kind  of  double 
marriage  with  both  sisters  in  the  unrestrained  manner  of  the 
"  Geniezeit."  His  wife  died  in  1784,  and  with  an  exultation 
which  found  expression  four  years  later  in  Das  hohe  Lied  von 
der  Einzigen,  he  greeted  the  possibility  of  being  able  to  marry 
Molly.  But  his  happiness  was  short-lived ;  within  a  few 
months  Molly,  too,  died.  Some  years  later,  he  married 
again,  but  his  third  marriage  was  even  a  more  miserable  one 
than  the  first,  and  in  two  years  ended  in  a  divorce.  Apart 
from  these  domestic  miseries,  Burger  was  condemned  to  a 
life  of  poverty,  first  as  an  official  in  a  small  village,  then  as 
an  unsalaried  teacher  in  the  University  of  Gottingen  ;  and  for 
a  man  of  his  nature,  straitened  circumstances  were  not  com- 
patible with  happiness.  Of  his  other  ballads,  Die  Weiber  Other 
von  Weinsberg  (1775),  Lenardo  und  B 'landing  (1776),  Das  ballads- 
Lied  vom  braven  Mann  (1777),  are  good  examples  of  his 
powers;  after  Lenore,  however,  Der  wilde  Jciger  (1778) 
unquestionably  takes  first  place.  Herder  had  pointed  out  the 
rich  spring  of  ballad  poetry  in  Bishop  Percy's  Reliques,  and 
Burger,  by  following  in  Herder's  footsteps,  created  the  German 
Romantic  ballad.  His  best  poems  are  either  direct  trans- 
lations from  the  English,  or — like  Lenore  itself — imitations 
of  the  Percy  Ballads.  To  this  group  belong,  Der  Bruder 
Graurock  und  die  Pilgerin  (i777)>  Des  Pfarrers  Tochter  von 
Taubenheim  (1781),  and  Der  Kaiser  und  der  Abt  (1784). 
The  love-songs  to  Molly  and  Das  Bliimchen  Wunderhold 
reveal  another  side  of  Burger's  poetic  genius,  while  his  sonnets 

1  Cp.  E.  Schmidt,  Ckarakterisliken,  Berlin,  1886,  199  ff.;  editions  of  Btirger's 
Gedichie,  by  A.  Sauer  (D.N.L.,  78  [1884])  and  E.  Grisebach,  a  vols.,  Berlin, 
1889.  The  most  recent  work  on  Biirger  is  by  W.  von  Wurzbach,  Leipzig, 
1900. 

U 


306  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

and  other  experiments  in  the  metrical  forms  of  Romance 
literatures  had  a  direct  influence  on  the  poetry  of  the 
Romantic  School :  A.  W.  Schlegel  was  proud  to  claim  that, 
as  a  student  in  Gottingen,  he  had  sat  at  Burger's  feet. 
Burger,  it  may  also  be  mentioned,  translated  from  the  English 
the  Wunderbaren  Reisen  zu  Wasser  und  Lande  des  Freyherrn 
von  Miinchhausen  (1786),  the  famous  "Volksbuch,"  which  R. 
E.  Raspe  had  published  in  England  a  year  earlier. 

There  is  perhaps  more  truth  in  the  severe  criticism  of 
Burger,  which  Schiller  wrote  in  I79I,1  than  the  critic's 
pointedly  moral  attitude  towards  the  poet's  weaknesses  makes 
us  willing  to  admit.  The  lack  of  balance,  the  defective 
moral  principle  in  Burger's  life,  sapped  to  a  large  extent  the 
vitality  of  his  poetry.  Standing  as  he  did,  on  the  threshold 
of  Romanticism,  his  career  might  have  been  a  warning  to  his 
successors :  he  was  an  example  of  a  principle,  which  was 
deeply  engrained  in  all  the  Romantic  writers,  namely,  that 
a  man's  poetry  must  be  at  one  with  his  life,  and  that  great 
poetry  can  only  be  the  expression  of  a  great  life. 

1  Sdmmtliche  Schriften,  ed.  K.  Goedeke,  6,  314  ff. 


307 


CHAPTER   VII. 
"STURM  UND  DRANG";  GOETHE'S  YOUTH. 

THE  phenomenon  known  as  "Sturm  und  Drang"  is  by  no  "Sturm 
means  restricted  to  the  literature  of  Germany.  There  is  a  ££d 
period  of  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  in  all  literatures,  as  there  is, 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  in  the  life  of  every  individual. 
There  was  a  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  in  Italy  and  France  when 
the  light  of  the  Renaissance  first  broke  on  these  countries ; 
there  was  a  "Sturm  und  Drang"  behind  the  "mighty  line" 
of  Marlowe  and  his  contemporaries,  in  the  French  literary 
movement  of  1830,  and  in  German  literature  at  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century;  while,  turning  to  single  works, 
this  spirit  is  as  evident  in  Titus  Andronicus  or  Childe  Harold 
as  in  Werther  or  Die  Rduber.  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  is  only 
another  expression  for  youthful  vigour.  But  it  would  be 
impossible,  in  English,  French,  or  Italian  literature,  to  point 
to  a  movement  of  this  character  so  widespread  and  universal 
as  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  in  German  literature  at  the  dawn 
of  the  classical  epoch.  The  "  Geniezeit " — the  phrase  "  Sturm 
und  Drang"  was  not  employed  until  a  later  date — was  in 
truth  a  period  of  genius  :  not  only  were  its  leaders — Herder, 
Goethe,  Schiller — men  of  unquestionable  eminence,  but  even 
the  minor  writers  of  the  time  were  poets  to  whose  gifts 
the  word  genius  is  more  applicable  than  talent.  Genius, 
however,  was  only  one  factor  in  the  German  "Sturm  und 
Drang " ;  a  second  was  the  work  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau 
(1712-78),  whose  ideas  gave  the  movement  its  peculiar  char- 
acter and  tendency.  Perhaps  in  no  age  has  the  thought  of 
one  man  affected  a  literature  so  powerfully  and  universally 
as  did  that  of  Rousseau  at  this  time;  not  even  the  dis- 
covery of  classical  antiquity  at  the  Renaissance,  or  the  re-birth 


308 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


J.  W.  von 

Goethe, 

1749-1832. 


of  individualism  in  our  own  time,  can  be  compared  with  the 
enthusiasm  for  Rousseau  which  found  voice  in  the  "Sturm 
und  Drang." 

The  "  Geniezeit "  practically  begins  with  the  publication  of 
Herder's  Fragmente,  in  1767,  and  closes  with  the  appear- 
ance of  Don  Carlos,  in  1787;  but  these  are  its  utmost 
limits.  It  is  perhaps  best  conceived  under  the  figure  of  an 
ellipse,  the  two  poles  of  which  are  formed  by  Go'tz  von 
Berlichingen  (1773)  and  Die  Rduber  (1781).  Goethe,  above 
all,  gave  the  movement  its  stamp ;  his  magnificent  personality 
dominated  it  completely  and  made  it  an  epoch  in  the  literary 
evolution  of  Europe. 

Johann  Wolfgang  Goethe1  was  born  in  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main  on  the  28th  of  August,  1 749.  His  father,  Johann  Caspar 
Goethe,  since  1742  "  kaiserlicher  Rat,"  had  received  a  good 
education  as  a  jurist,  and  had  visited  Italy,  from  which  he 
brought  back  tastes  that  influenced  his  whole  life.  But  he 
was  stern,  pedantic,  and  inaccessible,  and  little  real  sympathy 
existed  between  him  and  his  children.  Of  these,  Wolfgang 
was  the  eldest,  and  only  one  other  child,  Cornelie,  survived 
Childhood,  the  age  of  childhood.  The  poet's  mother,  Katharina  Elisabeth 
Textor,  who  was  herself  but  seventeen  when  he  was  born,  and 
of  a  bright,  happy  nature,  was  the  real  companion  of  his  early 
years ;  from  her  he  inherited  the  better  part  of  his  poetic 
genius.  No  childhood  could  have  been  sunnier  than  that 
which  young  Goethe  passed  in  the  patrician  house  in  the 
"  Grosse  Hirschgraben,"  with  its  huge  stairs,  roomy  attics, 
and  quiet  corners,  its  view  over  the  gardens  of  the  town. 
The  boy's  literary  instincts  were  first  awakened  by  the  stories 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  his  imagination  was  stimulated  by 
the  pomp  of  a  "  Kaiserkronung  "  in  the  Frankfort  "  Romer," 
or  town-hall.  A  marionette  theatre  and  the  performances 
of  French  players  turned  his  interests  in  the  direction  of  the 
drama.  During  the  French  occupation  of  Frankfort,  in  1759, 
Count  Thoranc,  the  "  Konigslieutenant,"  was  quartered  upon 

1  Of  recent  biographies  of  Goethe  the  best  are  by  R.  M.  Meyer,  3  vols.,  2nd 
ed.,  Berlin,  1899,  and  A.  Bielschowsky,  i,  and  ed.,  Munich,  1900.  The 
standard  edition  of  the  poet's  works  is  that  published  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Weimar  Court  (Weimar,  1887,  ff.);  of  this  edition,  57  vols.,  besides  35  of 
Letters  and  Diaries,  have  appeared  (1901).  A  critical  edition  by  K.  Heine- 
mann  is  also  in  course  of  publication,  Leipzig,  1901  ff.  In  D.N.L. ,  Goethe's 
works,  edited  by  H.  Duntzer,  K.  J.  Schroer,  R.  Steiner,  G.  Witkowski, 
embrace  vols.  82-117 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  309 

Goethe's  father :  the  Count  was  a  man  of  artistic  tastes, 
and,  to  Wolfgang's  delight,  gathered  round  him  the  artists 
of  the  town,  bringing  life  and  stir  into  the  old  house.  To 
the  enthusiasm  which  the  early  cantos  of  the  Messias 
awakened  in  the  boy,  and  partly  also  to  the  pietism  of  a 
distant  relative  of  his  mother's,  Susanna  von  Klettenbevg — 
the  "  schone  Seele  "  of  Wilhelm  Meister — we  owe  the  earliest 
poem  which  was  included  in  Goethe's  works,  Poetische 
Gedanken  iiber  die  Hollenfahrt  Chris  ti  (1763). 

In  1764,  the  first  romantic  episode  in  the  young  poet's 
life  occurred,  an  episode  which  is  surrounded  with  perhaps 
too  bright  a  halo  of  poetry  in  Dichtung  itnd  Wahrheit. 
But  the  Frankfort  Gretchen,  the  heroine  of  this  romance, 
regarded  Wolfgang  merely  as  a  boy  and  not  as  a  lover ;  an 
illness  brought  the  affair  to  a  conclusion,  and,  as  soon  as 
he  recovered,  his  father  sent  him  to  the  university.  In 
October,  1765,  Goethe  matriculated  at  the  University  of  Goethe  in 
Leipzig.  Leipzig,  as  he  found  it,  was  not  very  different  from  ^j 
what  it  had  been  nineteen  years  earlier  when  Lessing  came  to 
study  there ;  it  had  become,  if  anything,  more  metropolitan, 
and  made  even  the  son  of  a  leading  Frankfort  citizen  seem 
provincial  in  dress  and  speech.  In  the  literary  world  Gellert 
was  still  the  chief  star,  and  he  had  a  certain  influence  on 
Goethe's  prose  style  in  these  years.  Gottsched,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  sunk  considerably  lower  in  popular  estimation 
than  in  Lessing's  time.  To  Goethe,  as  to  Lessing,  the 
theatre  and  not  the  university  was  the  chief  source  of 
attraction,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he,  too,  was  busy 
with  dramatic  plans. 

The  "  Schaferspiel "  Die  Laune  des   Verliebten^  written  in  Die  Laune 
1767  and  1768,  is  a  reflection  of  Goethe's  relations  to  Anna  ^^Jr" 
Katharina  Schonkopf,  daughter  of  a  Leipzig  wine-merchant    1768. 
It  is  a  slight  play  in  one  act,  which  shows  how,  by  a  friend's 
intervention,  a  jealous  lover  is   cured  of  his  jealousy  :   it  is 
written  in  tripping  Alexandrines,  and  is  at  least  as  good  as  the 
pastoral  plays  of  the  Saxon  school.     More  interesting  than  Die 
Laune  des  Verliebten  is  a  small  MS.  volume  of  lyrics  inspired 
by  Kathchen  Schonkopf,  which  was  discovered  and  published 
as  recently  as   I896.1     These  poems  are  essentially  juvenile 
—  the  collection    bears    the   title   Annette  —  and   give   little  Annette. 

1    Werkc  (Weimar  edition),  37,  n  ff. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Neue 

Lieder, 

1769. 


Die  M it- 


Return  to 
Frankfort. 


promise  of  the  future  master.  But  before  Goethe  left  Leipzig 
he  had  taken  the  first  step  towards  publicity  by  publishing 
a  volume  of  Neue  Lieder  (1769),  which  had  been  written 
mainly  in  1768  and  1769.  In  these  songs  his  hand  has 
become  surer,  his  touch  finer;  but  the  gallantry  of  the 
"klein  Paris"  is  still  uppermost,  the  poet's  real  feelings  are 
still  veiled  in  polite  insincerities. 

The  second  of  Goethe's  dramas,  Die  Mitschuldigen,  although 
it  did  not  receive  its  present  form  until  his  return  to  Frankfort 
in  1769,  belongs  also  to  the  Leipzig  period.  It  is  a  more 
ambitious  play  than  its  predecessor,  but,  like  it,  does  not 
venture  beyond  the  domain  of  the  Saxon  comedy.  Sugges- 
tions from  Moliere,  the  half-frivolous,  half-moralising  tone  of 
Wieland,  together  with  the  young  poet's  own  experience  of 
the  problematic  side  of  life,  formed  his  materials ;  but  he  has 
not  succeeded  in  combining  these  varied  elements  in  a  har- 
monious and  convincing  whole. 

The  most  characteristic  of  Goethe's  writings  during  his 
life  in,  Leipzig  were  his  letters  to  his  friends : l  here  we 
find  best  exemplified  the  poet's  clearness  and  intuition,  his 
power  of  calling  up  a  picture  with  a  few  strokes  of  the 
pen,  and  of  giving  life  to  ideas.  But  the  strain  of  the  last 
months  of  his  life  in  Leipzig  had  been  too  much  for  him  : 
the  excitement  and  dissipation  of  student-life,  in  which  he 
endeavoured  to  stifle  his  sorrows,  ended  with  the  bursting 
of  a  blood-vessel  in  the  lungs,  and  he  lay  long  ill  at  home. 
As  he  gradually  recovered,  Frankfort,  compared  with  the 
free,  stimulating  life  of  Leipzig,  seemed  oppressive  in  its 
provincialism  :  he  sought  consolation  in  literature  for  the 
friends  he  had  left  behind  him  —  in  Lessing,  Shakespeare, 
and  Rousseau.  The  pietism  that  had  influenced  him  before 
he  left  home  now  returned  with  redoubled  force ;  his  letters 
became  religious  in  tone,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  magic 
and  alchemy.  His  father  proposed  that  he  should  com- 
plete his  studies,  not  in  Leipzig,  but  in  Strassburg,  and  on 
the  2nd  of  April,  1770,  he  arrived  in  the  Alsatian  capital, 

1  Although  now  superseded  by  the  Weimar  edition,  the  collection  of 
Goethe's  early  writings  and  letters  published  by  M.  Bernays,  under  the  title 
Der  junge  Goethe  (3  vols.,  Leipzig,  1875),  is  still  valuable  for  the  survey  it 
affords  of  the  poet's  life  and  work  between  1764  and  1776.  Cp.  also  W. 
Scherer,  A  us  Goethes  Friihzeit  (Quellen  und  Forschungen,  34),  Strassburg 
1879,  and  R.  Weissenfels,  Goethe  im  Sturm  und  Drang,  i,  Halle,  1894. 


CHAP.  VII.]'        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  311 

the   university  of  which,   French    rule   notwithstanding,   was 
essentially  German. 

In  Strassburg,  Goethe  discovered  his  genius ;  under  the  Goethe  in 
shadow  of  the  Strassburg  Minster,  he  became  a  poet.  It 
was  his  good  fortune  to  make  congenial  acquaintances  at 
once;  at  the  table  at  which  he  dined  he  found  an  inter- 
esting company,  presided  over  by  an  actuary,  Salzmann. 
To  this  circle  belonged  J.  H.  Jung-Stilling  (1740-1817),  an  J.H.  Jung- 
older  student,  who,  after  a  youth  of  the  severest  privations, 
had  ultimately  been  able  to  realise  the  wish  of  his  heart 
and  study  medicine.  His  autobiography,  of  which  the  first 
part  was  published  by  Goethe  in  1777,  under  the  title 
Heinrich  Stillings  Jugend?-  was  accepted  as  a  veritable 
"  Volksbuch,"  and  is  still  interesting  for  the  remarkable 
tone  of  pietistic  resignation  which  pervades  it.  Goethe's 
studies  in  Strassburg  ranged  from  law,  which  he  was  obliged 
to  study,  to  anatomy,  from  alchemy  to  poetry.  But  in  the 
autumn  of  his  first  year,  he  made  a  new  acquaintance  who 
was  to  mean  more  to  him  than  any  other  of  this  eventful 
time.  Herder — the  Herder  whose  Fragmente  had  found  a  Herder, 
passionate  response  in  so  many  young  hearts  —  arrived  in 
Strassburg,  and  Goethe  fell  completely  under  his  spell. 
Herder  brought  clearness  and  order  into  the  young  poet's 
thoughts  and  studies ;  he  taught  him  his  own  stimulating 
ideas  of  historical  evolution,  opened  his  eyes  to  the  beauties 
of  Gothic  architecture  and  to  the  greatness  of  Shakespeare ; 
he  revealed  to  him  the  heart  of  the  people  in  its  songs. 

Close    upon    this    friendship    followed   another   important 
event  in  Goethe's  life,  his  love  for  Friederike  Brion,  daughter  Friederike 
of  the  pastor  in  Sesenheim,  an  Alsatian  village  about  twenty  Brion> 
miles  to  the  north  of  Strassburg.     As  described  in  Dichtung 
und  Wahrheit,  there  is  no  more  charming  idyll  in  the  history 
of  modern  literature ;  and  the  lyrics  to  Friederike  are  proof 
enough  that,  in   his  autobiography,  Goethe  did  not  unduly 
veil  the  truth  in    poetry.      The   songs   which    this   country 
girl  inspired,  placed  Goethe  in  the  front  rank  of  lyric  poets ;  , 
since  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  no  notes  so  deep  and 
pure  had  been  struck  in    German   poetry.      In    his  Sesen-  The  Sesen. 
heim    Lieder  Goethe   first    completely  freed    the   lyric  from  heimlyncs- 

1  Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  Ersahlende  Prosa  der  klassischen  Periode,  2  (D.N.L., 
137  [1886]),  3  ff. 


312  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

the  formalism  of  the  Renaissance.  Verses  like  the  following 
(Mit  einem  gemahlten  Band)  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  modern  poetry  : — 

"  Sieht  mit  Rosen  sich  umgeben 
Sie,  wie  eine  Rose  Jung. 
Einen  Kuss  !  geliebtes  Leben, 
Und  ich  bin  belohnt  genung. 

Madchen  das  wie  ich  empfindet, 
Reich  mir  deine  liebe  Hand. 
Und  das  Band,  das  uns  verbindet, 
1    Sey  kein  schwaches  Rosenband."1 

To  the  Sesenheim  idyll,  the  only  issue  possible  was  a  tragic 
one,  and  before  many  months  were  over,  Goethe  felt  that 
the  inevitable  separation  had  to  come.  The  gulf  that  lay 
between  the  son  of  a  leading  Frankfort  citizen  and  the 
simple  villager,  who  even  lost  some  of  her  charm  for  him 
against  the  background  of  Strassburg's  streets,  was  too  wide 
ever  to  be  bridged.  The  separation  broke  Friederike's  heart 
and  plunged  Goethe  in  despair ;  it  sent  him  wandering 
through  storm  and  rain  in  restless  agony,  a  mood  that  is 
reflected  in  his  Wandrers  Sturmlied,  But  his  sorrow  taught 
him  to  see  deep  enough  into  the  human  heart  to  paint  a 
Marie,  a  Gretchen,  a  Werther,  and  it  was  now  that  the 
great  figures  of  Gotz  and  Faust  took  possession  of  him. 
In  August,  1771,  seventeen  months  after  his  arrival,  Goethe 
left  Strassburg  as  "  licentiate  of  law,"  a  degree  which  allowed 
him  to  use  the  title  "  Doctor." 

On  his  return  to  Frankfort  began  his  initiation  into  the 
business  of  an  advocate,  but  he  also  found  time  for  social 
intercourse  and  gaiety.  Among  his  many  friends,  J.  H. 
Merck,  in  Darmstadt  (1741-91),  seems  to  have  had  most 
authority  over  him  at  this  time.  A  man  of  ripe  practical 
sense,  Merck  was  always  ready,  after  the  manner  of  a 
Mephistopheles  or  a  Carlos,  to  keep  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
young  poet  in  check  and  to-  lead  him  back  to  the  path 
Goethe  in  of  prudence.  In  May,  1772,  Goethe  went  for  four  months 
Wetziar,  to  \Vetzlar,  the  seat  of  the  Imperial  Law  Courts,  in  order  to 
learn  the  routine  of  his  profession.  Here  he  soon  made  a 
new  circle  of  friends,  of  whom  the  chief  were  F.  W.  Goiter 
and  J.  C.  Kestner :  here,  too,  he  once  more  fell  in  love, 

1  Werfce,  i,  74  (but  cp.  i,  386). 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  313 

and  his  passion  for  Charlotte  Buff  left  furrows  on  his  soul 
almost  as  deep  as  those  he  had  received  in  Sesenheim,  the 
conflict  being  further  complicated  by  the  fact  that  Charlotte 
was  already  betrothed  to  his  friend  Kestner.  But,  although 
Goethe  was  brought  to  the  verge  of  suicide,  he  remained 
faithful  to  his  friend  and  Charlotte  to  her  betrothed.  A 
journey  up  the  Rhine  and  a  visit  to  Frau  Sophie  von 
Laroche  helped  to  obliterate  his  grief,  and,  once  in  Frankfort 
again,  he  devoted  himself  zealously  to  literary  work.  His 
critical  contributions  to  the  Frankfurter  Gelehrten  Anzeigen 
(I772'73)>1  i°  which  the  signal  for  the  literary  revolution 
was  first  clearly  sounded,  and  the  glowing  panegyric  on  the 
builder  of  the  Strassburg  Minster,  Erwin  von  Steinbach, 
which  appeared  in  November,  1772,  under  the  title  Von  Vondeut- 
deutscher  Baukunst,  were  the  immediate  results  of  Herder's  scher  Bait- 
teaching.  But  Goethe's  great  achievement,  the  work  which  i772.' 
made  him  the  chief  poet  of  Germany  and  the  leader  of  the 
"Sturm  und  Drang,"  was  Gotz  von  Berlichingen. 

In  its  first  form,  Geschichte  Gottfriedens  von  Berlichingen  Got*  von 
mit  der  eisernen  Hand,  dramatisirt  (not  published  until  1832),  ?*r^A~ 
was  written  in  the  autumn  of  1771  ;  in  1773,  however,  Goethe  1771-73. 
completely  revised  it  and  gave  it  a  more  compact  dramatic 
form,  in  other  words  made  a  play  out  of  what  had  only  been 
a  dramatised  chronicle.  And  in  this  form  under  the  title 
Gotz  von  Berlichingen  mit  der  eisernen  Hand :  ein  Schauspiel, 
it  appeared  in  I773-2  Based  upon  the  hero's  own  Lebens- 
Beschreibung,  which  was  written  about  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  printed  at  Niirnberg  in  1731,  Goethe's 
Gotz  von  Berlichingen  is  a  historical  drama  of  the  Reformation 
period,  but  a  drama  appealing  immediately  to  the  poet's  own 
contemporaries.  The  rough  knight  with  the  hand  of  iron, 
enemy  of  prince  and  priest  alike,  but  friend  of  the  op- 
pressed, the  champion  of  freedom,  was  an  ideal  that  went 
straight  to  the  heart  of  the  time,  and  the  young  Germany  of  the 
"Sturm  und  Drang"  greeted  Gotz  with  stormy  acclamation. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  Goethe  wove  into  the  story  his  own  life 
in  Strassburg ;  he  pictured  himself  in  the  wavering  Weisslingen, 

1  Werke,  37,  191  ff.  Von  deutscher  Baukunst  in  the  same  volume,  137  ff. 
A  reprint  of  the  Frankfurter gelehrte  Anteigen  vom  Jahre  1772,  by  W.  Scherer 
and  B.  Seuffert  (Litter at urdenkmale,  7,  8),  Stuttgart,  1883. 

•  Werke,  39,  i  ff.,  and  8,  i  ff.  A  reprint  of  Gotz  von  Berlichingen's  Lebctts- 
beschreibung,  by  A.  Bieling,  appeared  at  Halle  in  1886. 


314  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

and  Friederike  in  Gotz  von  Berlichingen's  sister,  Maria. 
Adalbert  von  Weisslingen  was  Gotz's  playmate  at  school,  but 
their  ways  have  separated ;  Gotz  lives  as  a  free  nobleman  to 
whom  might  is  right,  in  his  castle  on  the  Jaxt;  Weisslingen 
has  entered  the  service  of  the  Bishop  of  Bamberg,  and  is 
on  the  highway  to  become  a  Court  favourite.  When  the 
drama  opens,  Gotz  has  seized  the  opportunity  of  a  feud 
with  the  Bishop  to  take  Weisslingen  prisoner.  In  Jaxthausen, 
Weisslingen  sees  Maria  and  loves  her,  and  Gotz's  noble  be- 
haviour and  chivalrous  treatment  of  him  wins  his  heart.  He 
resolves  to  leave  the  Court  and  join  Gotz,  but  returning  to 
Bamberg  to  put  his  affairs  in  order,  yields  once  more  to  the 
allurements  of  the  Court  party ;  he  breaks  his  word  to  Gotz, 
his  troth  to  Maria.  A  heartless  Court  beauty,  Adelheid  von 
Walldorf,  becomes  his  wife.  Ultimately,  Gotz,  who  has  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  peasants'  revolt,  is  taken  prisoner, 
and  condemned  to  die  by  Weisslingen's  hand.  Maria  comes 
to  the  latter  and  implores  him  by  their  love  to  save  her 
brother's  life;  he  tears  the  sentence  of  death,  but  himself 
dies  poisoned  by  the  hand  of  Adelheid,  his  wife.  Adelheid 
is  condemned  to  death  by  the  Holy  Vehm,  and  Gotz  suc- 
cumbs to  his  wounds  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  with 
the  words  "  Es  lebe  die  Freyheit ! "  upon  his  lips.  Such  is 
in  brief  the  contents  of  the  stormy  tragedy  which  opened  a 
new  era  in  German  literature.  The  style  of  the  drama  is 
in  complete  harmony  with  its  spirit ;  no  dramatic  unities 
shackle  its  progress  ;  the  scenes  change  with  a  restlessness 
which  it  would  be  difficult  to  parallel  in  the  Elizabethan 
drama.  An  exuberance  of  genius  breathes  through  Gotz  ; 
its  figures  are  picturesquely  grouped  and  varied,  and  drawn 
with  a  marvellous  sureness  of  touch.  It  may,  of  course,  be 
objected  that  the  life  in  their  veins  is  that  of  the  "Sturm 
und'  Drang  "  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  not  of  the  age 
of  the  Reformation  ;  their  language — bold,  straightforward, 
even  to  grossness  —  is  only  the  poet's  conception  of  the 
tongue  that  was  spoken  in  the  sixteenth  century;  while 
Gotz  himself,  from  a  historical  point  of  view,  is  idealised 
beyond  recognition.  But  the  tragedy  is  naturally  not  to 
be  judged  as  a  realistic  drama  according  to  modern  canons ; 
it  is  the  creation  of  a  poet — a  poet's  commentary  on,  and 
interpretation  of,  life. 


r 

CHAP.  VII.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  315 

Gotz  von  Berlichingen  was  followed,  in  the  autumn  of  1774, 
by  another  work  which  was  even  more  widely  popular,  Die  Die  Leiden 
Leiden  des  jungen  Werthers.  As  Gotz  had  been  a  reflection  ^Irthers 
of  Goethe's  Strassburg  life,  so  Werther  reflects  his  life  in  1774. 
Wetzlar,  but  more  faithfully  and  directly,  for  the  sub- 
ject of  Werther  is  not  historical.  In  Werthers  Leiden  the 
"  letter-novel "  of  the  eighteenth  century  entered  upon  a 
new  lease  of  life,  but  its  immediate  model  was  rather  La 
nouvelle  Heloise  than  the  novels  of  Richardson.1  The  basis 
of  fact  upon  which  Werther  is  built  up  was,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, of  course,  Goethe's  love  for  Charlotte  Buff  in  Wetzlar  ; 
several  traits  were  also  suggested  by  a  passing  interest  in 
Maximiliane  Brentano,  daughter  of  Frau  Laroche,  and  finally 
the  suicide  of  a  young  colleague,  Jerusalem  by  name,  pro- 
vided the  novel  with  a  conclusion.  No  book  ever  seized 
all  hearts  so  powerfully  as  this  simple  story  of  unhappy  love 
and  suicide ;  over  no  book  have  so  many  tears  been  shed 
as  over  Werther.  Its  popularity  is  often  accounted  for  by 
the  fact  that  Goethe  wrote  for  a  morbidly  sentimental  age, 
but  this  explanation  is  unjust  to  the  poet.  It  is  hardly 
possible,  for  instance,  that  a  man  like  Napoleon  could  have 
read  Werther  seven  times  had  it  been  nothing  but  a  senti- 
mental love-story ;  and,  if  it  appealed  only  to  a  passing 
fashion,  it  would  have  long  ceased  to  be  interesting.  But 
this  is  manifestly  not  the  case.  The  greatness  of  Werther  lies 
in  the  faithful  picture  it  gives  of  a  human  soul ;  Goethe  never 
drew  a  more  living  man  than  Werther,  and  it  is  only  necessary 
to  compare  him  with  a  typical  hero  of  eighteenth -century 
fiction,  such  as  Rousseau's  Saint-Preux,  to  realise  where  the 
consummate  skill  of  the  German  poet  lay.  This  gentle  youth 
in  the  blue  coat,  yellow  waistcoat,  and  top-boots,  with  his  love 
for  nature  and  his  faith  in  Homer  and  Ossian,  this  tender, 
sensitive  nature,  which  breaks  under  an  overpowering  passion, 
is  one  of  the  most  convincing  portraits  to  be  found  in  the 
literature  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  appearance  of  Werther  was  the  signal  for  an  outburst 
of  sentimental  literature  by  no  means  restricted  to  the  Ger- 
man language;  all  Europe  was  infected  with  the  "Werther 
fever." 2  Parodies,  such  as  Nicolai's  Freuden  des  jungen 

1  Cp.  E.  Schmidt,  Richardson,  Rousseau  und  Goethe,  Jena,  1875,  126  ff. 

2  Cp.  J.  W.  Appell,  Werther  und  seine  Zeit,  4th  ed.,  Oldenburg.  1896. 


316 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Werthers  (1775),  were  incapable  of  stemming  the  flood,  the 
effects  of  which  were  felt  for  long  afterwards  in  German 
fiction.  The  best  novel  written  under  the  influence  of 
Wertker  was  Siegwart,  eine  Klostergeschichte  (1776),  by  the 
Swabian,  J.  M.  Miller  (1750-1814),  who,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, was  one  of  the  more  prominent  members  of  the 
"  Gottinger  Bund."  In  Siegwart,  moonlight  and  lachrymose 
sentiment  play,  especially  at  the  close,  a  considerable  role, 
but  the  book  is,  after  all,  essentially  an  "  educational " 
novel,  for  which  the  author's  early  life  afforded  materials ; 
also,  like  the  older  educational  novel,  it  is  pointedly  didactic 
in  spirit.  One  of  Goethe's  friends,  F.  H.  Jacobi  (1743- 
1819),  also  followed  in  his  footsteps  with  two  books,  Aus 
Eduard  All-wills  Papier  en  (1775)  and  Woldemar  (1777-79), 
both  of  which  found  many  readers ;  but,  on  the  whole,  their 
individual  stamp  was  not  sufficient  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
ordinary  sentimental  literature  of  the  time.  More  important 
is  the  influence  which  Jacobi  in  his  turn  exerted  upon  Goethe 
by  drawing  his  attention  to  Spinoza,  in  whom  the  poet 
found  refuge  from  the  extremes  of  rationalism  on  the  one 
side  and  Moravianism  on  the  other.  Jacobi's  philosophic 
writings,  such  as  his  Briefe  iiber  die  Lehre  des  Spinoza 
(1785),  have  more  weight  than  his  novels,  which  were, 
after  all,  merely  philosophical  treatises,  clothed  in  senti- 
mental garb.  His  elder  brother,  Johann  Georg  Jacobi 
(1740-1814),  stands,,  as  a  lyric  poet,  intermediate  between 
the  older  Anacreontic  poetry  of  Gleim  and  the  lyric  of 
Goethe. 

Among  the  many  new  friends  which  the  eventful  year  1774 
— perhaps  the  most  eventful  in  the  poet's  whole  life — brought 
Goethe,  was  the  Zurich  pastor  Johann  Kaspar  Lavater  (1741- 
1801).  Lavater  was  in  his  day  a  spiritual  force  of  wide- 
reaching  authority ;  his  fervid  individualistic  ideas  on  religion 
appealed  strongly  to  his  contemporaries.  As  a  poet,  he  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  written  dreary  Biblical  epics  on  the  model  of 
the  JMcssias,  as  well  as  hymns  inspired  by  Klopstock's  Odes  ; 
but  these  were  soon  forgotten.  His  memory  is  kept  alive 
solely  by  one  remarkable  work  which,  like  Klopstock's 
Gelehrtenrepublik,  bears  witness  to  the  unbalanced  spirit  of 
the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  This  was  the  Physiognomischen 
Fragmente  zur  Beforderung  der  Menschenkenntniss  und  Men- 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  317 

sckenliebe  (1775-78) — to  which  Goethe  himself  contributed 
a  few  sketches — a  fervid  and  totally  unscientific  forerunner 
of  Gall's  "  Phrenology." 

At    the  beginning  of  1775,   Goethe  was    once    more    in- 
volved in  a  great  passion,  this  time  for  Lili  Schonemann,  a  Lili 
rich  banker's  daughter  in   Frankfort.      Although  the  atmos-  Schone- 

,       .  maim. 

phere  of  the  Schonemann  household  was  unsympathetic  to 
the  poet,  who  disliked  the  restraint  of  society,  he  engaged 
himself  to  Lili,  and  the  "  neue  Liebe,  neues  Leben " 
brought  in  its  train  a  burst  of  matchless  lyric  poetry ;  but 
as  the  year  went  on,  he  himself  felt  the  force  of  the 
words  he  placed  in  the  mouth  of  Ferdinand,  the  hero  of 
Stella,  "  Ich  muss  fort  in  die  freie  Welt."  An  excursion 
to  the  St  Gotthard  with  the  two  brothers  Stolberg  in  the 
following  summer  cooled  his  affection  for  Lili,  and  when, 
at  the  close  of  the  year,  Karl  August  took  him  to  Weimar, 
on  a  visit  which  ultimately  proved  to  be  for  life,  the 
engagement  was  broken  without  tragic  consequences  on 
either  side. 

The  period  between  Goethe's  return  from  Strassburg,  in 
August,  1771,  and  his  departure  for  Weimar,  in  November, 
1775,  was  thus  filled  with  the  most  varied  and  engrossing 
experiences  for  the  young  poet ;  and  yet,  notwithstanding 
the  many  distractions,  he  was  busily  engaged  with  literary 
work  and  plans.  To  these  years  belong  more  than  half-a- 
dozen  dramatic  satires,  in  which  Goethe  enforced  his  own  Dramatic 
healthy,  if  still  somewhat  juvenile,  views  of  literature.  In  satires. 
Goiter,  Helden  und  Wieland  (1774),  he  sallied  forth  against 
Wieland  and  the  latter's  superficial  and  untrue  pictures  of 
the  ancient  Greek  world  ;  in  Hansivursts  Hochzeit  and  the 
Fastnachtsspiel  vom  Pater  Brey  other  affectations  of  the 
time  were  satirised.  The  exaggerated  Rousseauism  which 
had  followed  in  the  train  of  Herder's  teaching  is  the  subject 
of  Satyros  oder  der  vergotterte  Waldteufel,  while  in  the  Jahr- 
marktsfest  zu  Plundersiveilern  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  of 
the  time  is  held  up  to  ridicule.  Lastly,  DCS  Kiinstlers  Erde- 
wallen  and  Des  Kiinstlers  Vergotterung  (afterwards  remodelled 
as  Kiinstlers  Apotheose),  are  serious  pleas  for  the  honour  of 
the  artist's  calling. 

More  ambitious  are  Clavigo  (1774)  and  Stella  (1776),  both 
"biirgerliche  "  dramas  of  the  type  which  Lessing  had  perfected 


3 1 8  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Clavigo,       in  Emilia  Galotli.     Clavigo,  which  came,  it  might  be  said, 
177^  red-hot  from  the  poet's  brain  in  the  course  of  a  few  days,  is  a 

variation  of  the  story  of  Weisslingen  in  Gotz  von  Berlichingen  ; 
and  also  reflects  the  Sesenheim  tragedy.  In  the  young 
Spaniard  Clavigo,  who,  incited  by  his  ambitions,  abandons 
Marie  de  Beaumarchais  and  ultimately  falls  at  the  hand  of 
her  brother,  Goethe  once  again  dealt  out  that  poetic  justice 
to  himself  which,  in  actual  life,  he  had  escaped.  In  the 
compactness  of  its  dramatic  construction,  Clavigo  is  a  marked 
advance  upon  Gotz,  but  its  most  admirable  feature  is  the 
figure  of  Don  Carlos,  Clavigo's  friend  and  mentor,  the  man 
of  the  world.  If  Clavigo  still  harks  back  to  Strassburg, 
Stella,  Stella,  ein  Schauspiel  fitr  Liebende,  written  in  the  spring  of 
I77S-  i775i  is  clearly  an  echo  of  Goethe's  engagement  to  Lili 

Schonemann  ;  while  the  name  of  the  heroine  and  the  subject, 
the  love  of  one  man  for  two  women,  suggest  Swift's  biography 
as  a  source.  Ferdinand  is  too  weak  a  hero  to  hold  the  play 
together ;  and  the  mere  fact  that  it  was  possible  to  substitute 
a  tragic  denouement  for  the  original — and  for  its  time  so 
characteristic — ending  in  which  Ferdinand  took  both  wives 
to  his  bosom,  showed  that  the  plan  was  without  true  dramatic 
"necessity."  Notwithstanding  the  psychological  insight  that 
distinguishes  it,  Stella  is  not  one  of  the  poet's  masterpieces ; 
and  its  origin  is  explained  by  Goethe's  own  words,  "wenn 
ich  jetzt  nicht  Dramas  schriebe,  ich  ging  zu  Grund."1  Two 
"  Singspiele,"  which  were  subsequently  remodelled,  were  also 
first  written  at  this  time,  namely,  Erwin  und  Elmire  (1775) 
and  Claudine  von  Villa  Bella  (1776). 

Even  more  significant  than  the  finished  plays  was  the  series 
Fragments,  of  magnificent  fragments  which  Goethe  dashed  off  in  inspired 
moments  during  these  years.  A  great  philosophic  tragedy 
on  Sokrates  (end  of  1771)  was  planned,  a  religious  tragedy 
on  the  subject  of  Mahomet,  an  epic  on  the  theme  of  Der 
ewige  Jude.  To  the  year  1773  belongs  the  beginning  of  a 
drama  on  Prometheus,  which  breaks  off  with  the  noble  mono- 
logue : — 

"  Bedecke  deinen  Himmel,  Zeus, 
Mit  Wolkendunst, 
Und  ube,  dem  Knaben  gleich, 
Der  Disteln  kopft, 


1  Letter  to  Auguste  von  Stolberg,  March  1775  (Briefe,  2,  242). 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  319 

An  Eichen  dich  und  Bergeshohn ; 

Musst  mir  meine  Erde 

Doch  lassen  stehn, 

Und  meine  Hiitte,  die  du  nicht  gebaut, 

Und  meinen  Herd, 

Um  dessen  Gluth 

Du  mich  beneidest."  1 

But  all  these  fragments  sink  into  insignificance  beside  the  Faust, 
tragedy  of  Faust,  which  had  already  received  its  earliest  form  I775> 
before  Goethe  went  to  Weimar.  With  this  work,  which  had 
occupied  Goethe's  attention  since  his  student-days  in  Strass- 
burg,  the  first  period  of  his  life  culminates.  As  recently 
as  1887,  a  MS.  copy  of  Faust  was  discovered  in  the  form 
in  which  the  poet  brought  it  to  Weimar  —  the  so-called 
" Gochhausen'sche  Abschrift."2  This  play  of  1775  is  essen- 
tially the  Faust  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  and  might  be 
said  to  represent  the  highest  point  which  this  movement  in 
German  literature  reached.  There  is  nothing  in  it  of  the 
calm  philosophic  spirit  of  the  completed  masterpiece ;  Goethe 
is  not  yet  able  to  rise  superior  to  his  hero,  as  he  does  in  the 
completed  "First  Part"  (1808),  and  even  to  some  extent  in 
the  published  fragment  of  1790.  He  is  here  one  with 
Faust,  and  the  drama  is,  in  the  most  literal  sense,  a  confes- 
sion. He,  too,  had  known  the  unsatisfied  craving  for  new 
experiences,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  hatred  of  what 
Schiller  called  the  "  tintenklecksende  Seculum  "  on  the  other ; 
to  him  life  was  still  full  of  contradictions  and  inexplicable 
problems. 

The  opening  monologue  reflects  in  its  hearty  "  Knittel- 
verse,"  which  recall  the  drama  of  Hans  Sachs,  the  attitude 
of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  towards  knowledge  and  learning. 
The  apostrophe  to  the  moon — 

' '  Ach  konnt  ich  doch  auf  Berges  Hohn 
In  deinem  lieben  Lichte  gehn, 
Um  Bergeshohl  mit  Geistern  schweben, 
Auf  Wiesen  in  deinem  Dammer  weben, 
Von  all  dem  Wissensqualm  entladen 
In  deinem  Thau  gesund  mich  baden  ! "  3 — 

expresses  the  longing  of  the  age  to  find   in   nature  what  it 

1  Werke,  39,  213. 

2  Goethes  Faust  in  urspriinglicher  Gestalt,  edited  by  E.  Schmidt,  5th  ed., 
Weimar,  1901 ;  also  in  the  Werke,  39,  217  ff. 

3  Werke,  39,  220. 


320  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

could  not  obtain  from  books.  Here,  too,  in  response 
to  Faust's  conjuration,  the  Erdgeist  appears  "  in  widerlicher 
Gestalt  "— 

"  In  Lebensfluthen,  im  Thatensturm 
Wall  ich  auf  und  ab, 
Webe  bin  und  her  ! 
Geburt  und  Grab, 
Ein  ewges  Meer, 
Ein  wechselnd  Leben  ! 

So  schaffich  am  sausenden  Webstul  der  Zeit 
Und  wiircke  der  Gottheit  lebendiges  Kleid."  l 

The  first  scene  of  the  drama  closes  with  the  dialogue  between 
Faust  and  his  "  Famulus,"  Wagner ;  the  next  is  that  between 
Mephistopheles  and  the  Scholar,  or,  as  the  old  text  has  it, 
the  "  Student,"  a  scene  in  which  the  young  "  Sturmer  und 
Dranger "  has  an  opportunity  of  pouring  out  his  scorn  of 
academic  pedantry.  There  is,  however,  as  yet  no  indication 
how  Faust  and  Mephistopheles  are  to  be  brought  together. 
"  Auerbachs  Keller "  is  a  reminiscence  of  Leipzig,  blended 
with  later  academic  experiences,  and,  in  its  earliest  form, 
leaves  a  fresher  and  more  actual  impression  than  that  which 
the  final  version  makes  upon  the  reader ;  Faust,  for  in- 
stance, is  not  the  calm  onlooker  of  the  more  philosophic 
play;  it  is  he  and  not  Mephistopheles  who  bores  the  table 
and  supplies  the  students  with  wine  from  the  holes.  The 
scene  that  bears  the  title  "Strasse"  opens  the  "Gretchen" 

The  tragedy,  and  is  followed,  as  in  the  completed  drama,  by 

that  which  plays  in  Gretchen's  "  kleinem  reinlichem  Zimmer." 

tragedy.  Gretchen's  naive  delight  in  the  discovered  ornaments  and 
the  ballad  of  "  Der  Konig  in  Thule "  are,  in  their  oldest 
form,  if  less  polished,  not  on  that  account  the  less  sincere 
and  heartfelt ;  and  the  whole  of  this  tragedy,  with  its 
fine  pathos,  the  simple  beauty  of  its  love  scenes,  and,  as 
a  foil,  the  coarse  but  naively  popular  episodes  in  which 
Marthe  takes  part,  was  all  already  written  in  Frankfort. 
Here,  too,  is  the  wonderful  prose  scene,  "  Triiber  Tag," 
followed  by  the  unforgettable  picture  of  Faust  and  Mephis- 
topheles rushing  past  the  gallows  on  black  horses,  and, 
above  all,  the  scene  in  Gretchen's  prison,  a  scene  that  seeks 
its  like  in  dramatic  literature  ;  and  all  this  came  directly 

1  Werke,  39,  224  L 


CHAP.  VII.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  321 

out  of  the  brain  of  this  poet  of  twenty-five,  in  his  period 
of  "Sturm  und  Drang." 

Still  another  of  Goethe's  dramas,  Egmont  (1788),  belongs  Egmont, 
in  its  essentials  to  this  period  of  his  life.  He  began  to  I77S-88- 
write  Egmont  as  early  as  1775;  and  it  was  then  planned 
as  a  tragedy  of  the  type  of  Gotz,  enunciating  the  same 
principles  of  freedom  and  revolt.  But  before  Goethe  left 
Frankfort  for  Weimar,  he  had  only  sketched  out  the  play 
as  far  as  the  third  act;  in  1778  and  1779,  and  again  in 
1781,  new  scenes  were  added;  while  the  finishing  touches 
were  not  put  to  the  drama  until  the  summer  of  1787,  when 
he  was  in  Italy.  In  Egmont,  Goethe  has  stretched  the 
limits  of  dramatic  form  to  the  utmost ;  no  other  of  his 
dramas,  not  even  Tasso,  is  so  deficient  in  progressive  action. 
The  "great"  Graf  Egmont,  the  leader  of  the  revolt  of  the 
Netherlands  against  Spanish  tyranny,  is  warned  of  the  danger 
he  runs  in  remaining  in  Brussels ;  he  pays  no  attention  to 
the  warnings,  is  taken  prisoner  by  the  Duke  of  Alba,  and 
executed — such  is  the  slight  plot  upon  which  rests  Egmonfs 
claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  drama ;  all  else  in  the  play  is 
episodic,  and  only  serves  to  complete  the  picture  of  Egmont 
himself.  The  admirable  "  Volksscenen  "  are  introduced  to 
show  how  he  was  regarded  by  the  populace  of  Brussels ; 
Margarete  von  Parma,  Machiavell  and  Oranien  are  only 
foils  to  bring  his  political  position  into  prominence ; 
Clarchen  exists  to  let  us  see  him  in  love ;  the  various  scenes 
are  loosely  thrown  together  without  connection  or  construc- 
tion. And  yet,  notwithstanding  these  shortcomings,  Egmont 
remains  one  of  Goethe's  most  impressive  works.  The  hero 
himself,  who  has  but  little  in  common  with  the  historical 
Egmont,  is  a  masterpiece  of  dramatic  characterisation ;  he  is 
another  Weisslingen,  another  Ferdinand,  another  Faust ;  he 
is  again  the  "  Sturmer  und  Dranger "  with  "  two  souls  in 
his  breast."  Like  these  characters,  Egmont  is,  to  use 
Goethe's  own  expression,  "damonisch,"  but  the  tragic  dis- 
cord in  Weisslingen's  or  Faust's  life  has  in  Egmont's  given 
place  to  a  calmer,  more  cheerful  outlook  upon  the  world. 
He  is  not,  to  the  same  extent,  at  war  with  existence  ;  he 
wins  the  affection  of  all  who  come  in  contact  with  him ;  his 
tragic  fate  is  his  own  trusting  heart.  But  even  to  a  greater 
extent  than  to  the  principal  figure,  the  tragedy  owes  its 

x 


$22 


THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


"  Clar- 
chen." 


popularity  to  Clarchen.  Like  Gretchen,  Clarchen  bears 
witness  to  that  faculty  of  laying  bare  a  woman's  soul  which 
Goethe  possessed  in  so  remarkable  a  degree  :  the  love-scenes 
between  Egmont  and  Clarchen  are  among  the  truest  he  ever 
wrote.  Egmont's  "  Geliebte "  is  not  merely  a  replica  of 
Gretchen ;  she  bears  indeed  something  of  the  same  relation 
to  Gretchen  that  Egmont  bears  to  Faust :  she  is  less  tragic, 
and  has  still  that  light-hearted  "  Lebenslust "  which  Gretchen 
had  lost — if  she  ever  possessed  it — before  Faust  knew  her. 
She  is  less  naive  and  more  self-conscious  than  Gretchen ;  and 
occasionally,  as  in  her  wonderful  song,  "  Freudvoll  und  leid- 
voll,  Gedankenvoll  sein,"  there  is  a  suggestion  of  that  romantic 
poetry  which  forms  a  halo  round  Mignon. 

Thus,  although  defective  as  a  drama,  Egmont  is  justified  by 
its  characters ;  it  appeals  to  us  by  its  broad  human  sympathy, 
the  broader  because  the  turbulence  of  Gotz  and  Clavigo  has 
subsided.  It  forms  the  transition  in  Goethe's  work  from  the 
"  Sturm  und  Drang "  to  the  maturity  of  his  life  in  Weimar, 
from  Gotz  to  Iphigenie, 


323 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    MINOR    "STtiRMER    UNO    DRANGER " ;    SCHILLER'S 
EARLY   YEARS. 

To  Goethe's   immediate  circle  of  friends  in  Strassburg  and 

Frankfort  belonged  three  men — Lenz,  Klinger,  and  Wagner 

— who    may  be    regarded   as    typical    representatives  of  the 

movement  of  "  Sturm   und   Drang."      Like    Goethe  himself 

at  this  time,  all  three  were  pre-eminently  dramatists  ;    their 

work   was  an   immediate   continuation   of  what   H.   W.   von   H.  W.  von 

Gerstenberg    (1737-1823),    whose    name    has    already   been   ^frrste"~ 

mentioned,  had  begun.     Gerstenberg   may  be  said   to   have   1823! 

ushered  in  the  movement  with  what  remained  its  best  work 

of  criticism,  the  Briefe  iiber  Merkwiirdigkeiten  der  Litteratur 

(1766- 70);!   and   in   the   tragedy,  Ugolino  (1768),  in  which 

Dante's  story  of  the  death  of  Count  Ugolino  and  his  sons 

by  starvation  is  extended  over  five  harrowing  acts,  he  had 

put  his  own  theories  into  practice.     But  Gerstenberg  is   in 

closer  sympathy  with  Klopstock  than  Goethe ;  he  was,  after 

all,  only  a  herald  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang." 

Jakob   Michael  Reinhold  Lenz 2  was  born  in  Livonia,  in  j.  M.  R. 
1751;  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  found  his  way,  like  Herder,  to   Lenz»  175I- 
Strassburg  as  a  travelling  tutor,  and  became  an  enthusiastic  9 
member  of  the  group  of  "Sturmer  und  Dranger"  who  had 
gathered  round  Salzmann.     He  was  seized  with  the  ambition 
of  being  recognised  as  Goethe's  equal,  and  to  attain  this  end, 
not  only  sacrificed  his  own  originality  by  trying  to  write  like 
Goethe,   but  also  imitated  closely  Goethe's  manner  of  life. 

1  Ed.  A.  von  Weilen  (Litteraturdenkm. ,  29,  30),  Heilbronn,  1889;   Ugolino 
will  be  found  in  D.N.L.,  48,  191  ff. 

2  Lenz's  Gesammelte  Sc hriften  were  first  edited  by  L.  Tieck,  Berlin,  1828; 
a  selection  by  A.  Sauer  in  Sturmer  und  Drdnger,  a  (D.N.L.,  80  [1883]).     Cp. 
E.  Schmidt,  Lent  und  Klinger,  Berlin,  1878. 


324 


THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Der  Hof- 
meister, 

I774- 

Die  So  Ida- 
ten,  1776. 


Anmcr- 

kungen 

iibers 

Theater, 

1774- 


In  Strassburg,  for  instance,  he  hoped  to  succeed  his  friend 
in  Friederike's  affection ;  and  in  Weimar,  which  he  visited 
in  1776,  the  Duke  called  him  Goethe's  ape.  His  eccen- 
tricities were  a  source  of  amusement  to  Weimar"  society,  until 
a  tactless  lampoon  on  Goethe,  Frau  von  Stein,  and  the  Court, 
compelled  him  to  make  a  hasty  retreat.  In  later  years  he  was 
for  a  time  insane,  and.  in  1792,  died  in  extreme  poverty  near 
Moscow. 

In  Strassburg,  Lenz  gained  a  reputation  as  an  admirer  of 
Shakespeare,  but  in  his  own  plays  the  only  feature  that  recalls 
the  English  dramatist  is  the  restless  change  of  scene.  He 
served  his  dramatic  apprenticeship  by  adapting  five  of  Plautus's 
comedies  to  the  German  stage  (17  74).  These  pieces  are  in 
the  spirit  of  Holberg,  and  the  dialogue,  especially  that  of  the 
comic  scenes,  shows  a  considerable  advance  on  the  old 
comedy  of  the  Saxon  School.  Lenz's  talent  appears  to  most 
advantage  in  the  two  dramas,  Der  Hofmeister,  oder  Vortheile 
der  Privaterziehung  (1774),  and  Die  Soldaten  (1776):  the 
former  of  these  is  a  modern  version  of  the  story  of  Abelard 
and  Heloise,  and  exemplifies  the  danger  of  employing  private 
tutors  in  good  families  where  there  are  daughters ;  the  second 
has  also  a  "purpose,"  its  theme  being  that  the  soldier  is 
an  enemy  of  society.  Both  plays  belong  to  the  category  of 
"  biirgerliche  Schauspiele  " ;  in  both,  the  crude  sentimentality 
of  the  German  drama  of  a  generation  earlier  and  the  moral- 
ising tone  of  Diderot  are  combined  with  the  daring  realism  of 
the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  The  combination  is  not  altogether 
successful,  but  Lenz's  realism  is  fresh  and  robust,  his  char- 
acter-drawing always  admirable,  and  his  comic  scenes  are 
genuinely  comic.  Der  neue  Menoza  (1774)  is  a  satirical 
drama  inspired  by  Rousseau,  on  the  vices  of  civilisation, 
and  Die  Freunde  machen  den  Philosophen  (1776),  which 
suffers  under  its  exaggeratedly  "  Shakespearian "  technique, 
closes  with  a  scene  similar  to  the  last  scene  of  Goethe's 
Stella,  where  the  hero,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  left  with  two 
wives. 

The  theoretical  basis  of  Lenz's  dramatic  work  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Anmerkungen  iibers  Theater  (i  77 4),  which  were 
accompanied  by  a  translation  of  the  greater  part  of  Love's 
Labour's  Lost,  under  the  title  Amor  vincit  omnia.  These 
"  notes,"  which  reveal  an  unexpected  critical  talent,  give  an  ex- 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  325 

cellent  summary  of  the  dramaturgic  principles  of  the  "  Sturm 
und  Drang."  Lenz  heartily  agrees  with  Lessing  in  his  con- 
tempt for  the  pseudo-classic  drama  of  the  French,  but,  unlike 
Lessing,  has  little  respect  for  Aristotle.  He  despises  all 
unities,  except  that  of  character  ;  a  drama  is  to  consist  merely 
of  interesting  "  characters,"  and  the  theatre  to  become  what 
Goethe  called  a  "  Raritatenkasten." 

The  recent  publication  of  Lenz's  collected  Gedichte^  has  Lenz's 
led  to  a  better  appreciation  of  his  remarkable  lyric  talent, 
In  his  songs,  he  stands  in  a  closer  relation  to  his  model  than 
in  either  his  dramas  or  his  prose,  and  it  is  still  a  matter  of 
uncertainty  whether  certain  lyrics  of  the  Sesenheimer  Lieder- 
buch  were  written  by  Lenz  or  Goethe.  Lenz's  Liebe  auf  dem 
Lande,  the  subject  of  which  is  Friederike  Brion,  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  poems  of  the  time  : — 

"  Denn  immer,  immer,  immer  doch 
Schwebt  ihr  das  Bild  an  Wanden  noch 
Von  einem  Menschen,  welcher  kam 
Und  ihr  als  Kind  das  Herze  nahm. 
Fast  ausgeloscht  ist  sein  Gesicht, 
Doch  seiner  Worte  Kraft  noch  nicht, 
Und  jener  Stunden  Seligkeit, 
Ach  jener  Traume  Wirklichkeit, 
Die  angeboren  jedermann, 
Kein  Mensch  sich  wirklich  machen  kann."2 

Friedrich  Maximilian  von  Klinger  (i752-i83i),3  like  F.  M.  von 
Goethe,  a  native  of  Frankfort,  was,  on  the  whole,  the  manliest 
and  best-balanced  dramatist  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  He 
was  not  so  highly  gifted  as  Lenz,  nor  does  his  work  show  the 
same  variety — in  lyric  talent,  for  instance,  he  was  wholly 
deficient — but  as  a  young  man  he  was  no  less  unbridled  and 
extravagant  than  his  friends,  and  none  of  them  fell  so  com- 
pletely under  the  influence  of  Rousseau  as  he.  Beneath 
his  extravagance,  however,  there  lay  a  foundation  of  common- 
sense  which  was  absent  in  the  character  of  men  like  Lenz. 
Klinger's  life  falls  into  two  halves,  the  division  being  formed 
by  the  year  1780,  when  he  entered  the  Russian  military 
service.  In  his  earlier  years  he  was  for  a  time  attached,  as 

1  Ed.  K.  Weinhold,  Stuttgart,  1891. 

2  K.  Weinhold,  I.e..  150;  D.N.L.,  80,  233. 

*  Cp.  M.  Rieger,  Klinger  in  der  Sturm-  und  Drangpfriode,  Darmstadt, 
1880 ;  and  E.  Schmidt,  I.e.,  62  ff.  A  selection  from  his  works  in  A.  Sauer's 
Sturmer  und  Drdngtr,  I  (D.N.L.,  79  [1883]). 


326 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


warr,  1776. 


Die  Zwil- 
linge, 1776. 


playwright,  to  a  theatrical  company,  and  his  work  was  ex- 
clusively dramatic ;  during  the  period  of  his  life  in  Russia,  to 
which  we  shall  return  in  the  following  chapter,  he  wrote 
mainly  novels. 

Klinger's  career  began  with  Otto  (1775),  a  "  Ritterdrama," 
written  on  the  model  of  Gotz  von  Berlichingen  ;  it  was  followed 
by  Das  leidende  Weib  (1775),  on  which  the  influence  of  Lenz 
is  conspicuous.  In  the  next  year  appeared  the  dramas,  Die 

Der  Wirr-  neue  Arria,  Simsone  Grisaldo,  and,  most  notable  of  all,  Der 
Wirrwarr  oder  Sturm  und  Drang,  the  play  which  gave  its 
name  to  the  movement.  Klinger's  Sturm  und  Drang  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  age  in  more  than  title :  its  subject — it  is  a 
love-story  similar  to  that  of  Romeo  and  Juliet,  with  the  American 
War  of  Independence  as  a  background ;  its  ebullient  enthusi- 
asm and  unbridled  passion ;  its  language,  broken  by  paren- 
theses and  marks  of  exclamation, — all  this  is  the  very  essence 
of  the  "  Geniezeit."  But  even  Sturm  und  Drang  was  not  so 
stormy  as  another  of  Klinger's  tragedies,  Die  Zwillinge  (1776), 
^g  mosj.  characteristic  of  these  "  Explosionen  des  jugendlichen 
Geistes  und  Unmuthes,"  as  in  after  years  their  author  called 
them.  This  is  a  grim  tragedy  of  fraternal  hatred,  and 
from  first  word  to  last  the  action  sweeps  irresistibly  along, 
heedless  of  psychological  truth  or  probability.  The  villainous 
Guelfo  kills  his  twin-brother  Fernando,  not  merely  because 
the  latter  is  his  successful  rival  in  love,  but  also  because 
Fernando  is  determined  to  assert  his  rights  as  eldest  born, 
and  Guelfo  is  stabbed  by  his  own  father.  The  double 
motive  for  the  tragic  catastrophe  of  Klinger's  Zwillinge  in- 
duced the  actor  Schroder  to  bestow  the  prize  he  had  offered 
for  the  best  German  drama,  upon  it  rather  than  on  another 
tragedy  which  treated  a  similar  theme  and  had  been  written 

J.  A.  Leise-  for  the  same  competition,  Jttlius  von  Tarent  (1774,  printed 
I776),1  by  J.  A.  Leisewitz.  Leisewitz  (1752-1806)  was  one 
of  the  stronger  dramatic  talents  of  his  age,  but  he  gave 
himself  up  less  spontaneously  to  the  spirit  of  the  "Sturm 
und  Drang"  than  either  Lenz  or  Klinger.  He  had  begun 
to  write  under  the  auspices  of  the  Gottingen  Bund,  and  his 
tragedy — his  only  work  of  importance — shows  that  he  had 
learnt  his  art  in  Lessing's  school  rather  than  in  Goethe's. 
Julius  von  Tarent  is  a  powerful  play  on  the  love  of  two 

1  Cp.  D.N.L..  79,  317  ff.;  Litteraturdenkm. ,  32  (1889). 


witzs 
Julius  von 
Tarent, 
1776. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 


327 


brothers  for  the  same  woman,  and  Leisewitz  spares  no  pains  to 
make  the  dark  side  of  his  tragedy  as  terrifying  as  possible  ; 
but  he  has  more  restraint  than  Klinger  ;  his  dramatic  effects 
are  not  so  impulsive.  This  tragedy  is  the  immediate  fore- 
runner of  Schiller's  Rauber,  the  last  outstanding  creation  of 
the  "  Sturm  und  Drang." 

The  oldest  of  the  "  Goetheaner,"  Heinrich  Leopold  Wagner  H.  L. 
(I747-79),1  a  native  of  Strassburg,  has  least  claim  upon  our  Wagner, 
attention.  His  tragedies,  Die  Reue  nach  der  That  (1775) 
and  Die  Kindermorderinn  (1776),  belong  to  the  category  of 
"biirgerliche  Trauerspiele  "  ;  they  discuss  social  problems,  and 
help  to  fill  the  gap  between  Emilia  Galotti  and  Kabale  und 
Liebe.  The  "  Kindermorderin  "  is  a  butcher's  daughter  who 
is  seduced  by  an  officer  ;  she  flees  from  her  parents,  who  both 
subsequently  die  ;  finally,  in  despair,  she  kills  her  child  and 
is  executed.  The  difference  of  social  caste,  a  motive  that 
recurs  again  and  again  in  the  drama  of  the  "  Sturm  und 
Drang,"  forms  the  basis  of  Die  Kindermorderinn;  but  Wagner's 
treatment  of  the  theme  is  crude  and  revolting,  and  the  play 
reads  like  a  criminal  report  in  dramatic  form.  The  resem- 
blance of  the  plot  to  that  of  the  "  Gretchen  tragedy  "  in  Faust 
is  not  accidental,  Goethe  having  himself  told  Wagner  of  the 
subject  in  Frankfort.  A  more  pleasing  example  of  Wagner's 
genius  is  his  Prometheus,  Deukalion  und  seine  Recensenten 
(1775),  a  witty  harlequinade  in  "  Knittel  verse  "  in  defence 
of  Goethe  and  Werther. 

Friedrich  Miiller  (i749-i825),2  or,  as  he  preferred  to  be 
called,  "  Mahler  Miiller,"  did  not,  like  Lenz  and  Klinger,  Maler 
begin  as  a  "  Sturmer  und  Dranger  "  ;  he  stands  between  the  Muiier, 
quiet,  old-world  sentimentalism  of  Gessner  and  the  virile 
and  tumultuous  literature  of  the  "Geniezeit."  His  earliest 
poems  were  inspired  by  Gessner's  Idylls;  in  the  Schaaf- 
Schur  eine  Pfdlzische  Idylle  (1775),  on  the  other  hand,  he 
abandons  the  rococo  style  of  the  Swiss  poet  for  the  realism 
of  the  age  that  produced  Litise  and  Der  Hofmeister.  Muller's 
passive  temperament  was  easily  impressed  by  outside  influ- 
ences; his  lyric  drama  Niobe  (1778)  bears  witness  to  his 
admiration  for  Klopstock,  and  even  the  triviality  of  the 

1  E.  Schmidt,  H,  L.  Wagner,  Jena,  1875;  A.  Sauer  in  D.N.L.,  80,  275  ff. 
A  reprint  of  Die  Kindermorderin  in  the  Litteraturdenkm.  ,  13,  Heilbronn,  188^. 

2  A.  Sauer,  Stitnner  and  Dranger,  3  (D.N.L.,  81  [1883]).     Cp.  B.  Seuffert, 
Maler  Miiller,  Berlin,  1877. 


328 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


anacreontic  rhymers  has  left  traces  on  his  poetry.  In  later 
life — from  1778  on  he  lived  mainly  in  Rome — Maler  Miiller 
came  into  touch  with  the  Romantic  School. 

Of  the  favourite  themes  of  this  age,  none  had  a  greater 
fascination  for  the  "Stiirmer  und  Dranger"  than  that  of  the 
magician  who  sells  his  soul  to  the  devil  in  exchange  for  super- 
human powers.  Like  Goethe,  and  like  Klinger  in  one  of  his 
later  novels,  Miiller,  too,  was  attracted  by  the  saga  of  Faust ; 
in  1776,  he  dedicated  his  Situationen  aus  Fausts  Leben  to 
"  Shakespeares  Geist,"  and  two  years  after,  published  the 
first  part  of  Fausts  Leben  dramatisirt.  Miiller's  Faust  only 
resembles  Goethe's  in  so  far  as  it  was  also  the  goblet  into 
which  the  author  poured  his  own  dreams  and  aspirations.  The 
Ingolstadt  professor  of  Muller's  tragedy  is  again  the  typical 
"  Ubermensch  "  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  but  he  is  neither 
idealist  nor  hero ;  Miiller  describes  him  in  his  preface  as — 

"ein  Kerl,  der  alle  seine  Kraft  gefuhlt,  gefiihlt  den  Ziigel,  den 
Gliick  und  Schicksal  ihm  anhielt,  den  er  gern  zerbrechen  wollt, 
und  Mittel  und  Wege  sucht — Muth  genug  hat  alles  nieder  zu 
werfen,  was  in  Weg  trat  und  ihn  verhindern  will.  Warme  genug 
in  seinem  Busen  tragt,  sich  in  Liebe  an  einen  Teufel  zu  hangen, 
der  ihm  offen  und  vertraulich  entgegen  tritt." 1 

A  better-constructed  drama,  Goto  und  Genoveva,  which  was 
written  in  1781,  but  not  published  until  1811,  serves  admir- 
ably, if  compared  with  Tieck's  romantic  play  on  the  same 
subject,  to  show  the  difference  between  the  unbalanced 
enthusiasm  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  and  the  more  mature 
and  passive  spirit  of  Romanticism.  Goto  und  Genoveva 
belongs  essentially  to  the  category  of  "  Ritterdramen." 

The  minor  dramatists  of  the  "Geniezeit"  were  seriously 
handicapped.  Their  early  work  had  been  unduly  over- 
shadowed by  Gotz  von  Berlichingen,  and  they  had  hardly 
begun  to  win  an  independent  position  for  themselves  when 
Die  Rduber  appeared,  and  they  were  once  more  forced  into 
the  background.  Johann  Friedrich  Schiller,2  the  second  child 

1  Reprint  by  B.  Seuffert  (Litteraturdenkm. ,  3),  Heilbronn,  1881,  8.  Besides 
the  Fausts  of  Goethe,  Maler  Miiller,  and  Graf  Soden  (referred  to  below), 
the  theme  was  in  this  period  made  the  subject  of  dramatic  treatment  by  P. 
Weidmann  (Johann  Faust,  1775),  A.  W.  Schreil>er  (Scenen  aus  Fausts  Leben, 
1792),  J.  F.  Schink  (Johann  Faust,  1804),  and  K.  Schone  (1809). 

a  The  two  chief  biographies  of  Schiller,  by  J.  Minor  (i,  2  ;  Berlin,  1890)  and 
R.  Weltrich  (r,  Stuttgart,  1885-99),  are  still  far  from  completion.  Cp.  also 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  329 

of  an  army-surgeon  in  Wiirtemberg,  was  born  at  Marbach  on 
the  loth  of  November,  1759  ;  he  was  four  years  old  when  the 
family  removed  to  Lorch,  and  seven  when  they  settled  in 
Ludwigsburg.  In  Schiller's  childhood,  the  halo  of  poetry 
which  surrounded  Goethe's  is  missing,  and  anything  idyllic 
or  beautiful  in  it  soon  came  to  an  end ;  beyond  a  talent  for 
writing  Latin  verses,  and  a  period  of  religious  enthusiasm 
which  culminated  in  his  confirmation  in  the  spring  of  1772, 
there  was  also  nothing  remarkable  about  his  schooldays. 
Theology,  as  was  not  unnatural  in  a  boy  of  his  temperament, 
was  his  favourite  study,  but  Duke  Karl  Eugen  of  Wiirtemberg, 
whose  tyranny  threw  its  shadow  on  all  Schiller's  youth,  decreed 
otherwise ;  he  claimed  the  promising  scholar  for  his  new 
school  in  the  "  Solitude  "  near  Ludwigsburg.  A  protest  from 
Schiller's  father  made  it  clear  that  the  latter  had  either  to 
resign  his  son  to  the  Duke's  will  or  himself  make  shift  for 
his  bread;  and  so,  in  the  beginning  of  1773,  Schiller  became  As"Karis- 
a  "  Karlsschiiler,"  destined  to  be  formed  into  a  jurist  by  a  schuler-" 
process  of  military  drill.  The  only  bright  points  in  this 
school-life  in  the  "  Solitude "  were  the  passionate  friendships 
Schiller  formed.  His  enforced  studies  were  hateful  to  him  in 
the  extreme,  and  it  was  a  slight  change  for  the  better  when,  in 
November,  1775,  the  school  was  transferred  to  Stuttgart  and  a 
medical  faculty  instituted,  which  he  was  allowed  to  join. 

In  the  "Solitude"  at  Ludwigsburg,  Schiller  worshipped 
the  Messias  as  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  poetry ;  in  Stuttgart 
his  poetic  horizon  rapidly  widened.  Surreptitiously  he  found 
opportunities  of  reading  the  most  popular  dramas  of  the 
day — Gotz,  Die  Zwillinge,  Julius  von  Tarent — and  himself 
began  to  plan  a  drama  similar  to  these,  with  Cosmo  di 
Medici  as  hero.  Werther,  too,  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  him,  and  his  projected  Student  von  Nassau  would 
probably  have  been  a  romance  on  the  same  lines.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  Die  Rauber — the  plot  of  which  had  been 
suggested  to  him  by  a  short  story  by  C.  F.  D.  Schubart — 

those  by  J.  Palleske,  i3th  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1891,  O.  Brahm  (not  completed, 
Berlin,  1888-92),  and  O.  Harnack  (in  Geisteshelden,  28,  29),  Berlin,  1898.  A 
"historisch-kritische"  edition  of  Schiller's  works,  edited  by  K.  Goedeke, 
appeared  at  Stuttgart  in  17  volumes  l>etween  1867  and  1876;  in  D.N.L., 
Schiller  is  edited  by  R.  Boxberger  and  A.  Birlinger,  and  occupies  vols.  118-129 
(13  vols.  [1882-90]).  A  critical  edition  of  Schiller's  Briefe,  in  7  vols.,  is  edited 
by  F.  Jonas,  Stuttgart,  1892-96. 


330  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

was  taking  shape.  All  through  1780,  Schiller  worked  at  it, 
and  when,  in  December  of  that  year,  he  left  the  Academy, 
entitled  to  practise  as  a  doctor,  the  drama  was  virtually 
finished. 

Die  Rtiuber  (1781)  is  the  great  revolutionary  drama  of 
German  literature,  the  one  genuinely  political  tragedy  of  the 
"  Sturm  und  Drang."  It  does  not,  like  Gotz,  play  in  a  remote 
age,  but — so  far  as  it  has  any  historical  character  at  all — 
during  the  Seven  Years'  War.  The  subject,  a  tragedy 
of  two  brothers,  was  one  of  the  favourite  themes  of  the 
"Sturm  und  Drang."  Karl  Moor,  endowed  with  all  the 
qualities  the  age  admired,  but  estranged  from  father  and 
home  by  the  machinations  of  his  brother  Franz,  becomes 
the  leader  of  a  robber-band  in  the  Bohemian  forests.  Like 
another  Gotz,  he  punishes  vice  and  arrogance  and  assists  the 
needy  and  the  oppressed;  he  is  an  "edler  Rauber."  But 
he  is  seized  with  a  longing  to  see  his  home  again,  where, 
meanwhile,  Franz  has  imprisoned  their  father  in  a  tower,  with 
the  intent  of  slowly  starving  him  to  death,  and  has  attempted 
without  success  to  win  for  himself  his  brother's  betrothed, 
Amalia.  Karl  rescues  his  father,  only  to  see  him  die,  while 
Franz  eludes  the  robbers  whom  Karl  has  sent  to  capture 
him,  by  killing  himself.  A  reward  is  on  the  robber's  head, 
and  he  recalls  a  poor  man  who  stands  in  need  of  assistance. 
Thus  he  voluntarily  "  appeases  the  laws  he  has  offended  and 
restores  the  order  of  the  world,"  which,  as  he  now  realises, 
he  has  helped  to  destroy  rather  than  to  uphold. 

The  poet  himself  may  not  have  been  responsible  for  the 
motto,  "  In  tirannos,"  attached  to  the  second  edition  of  the 
tragedy,  but  these  words  express  its  spirit.  Die  Rtiuber  is,  we 
might  say,  a  direct  challenge  to  the  political  tyranny  that 
loomed  so  large  on  Schiller's  own  horizon  at  this  time. 
When  the  young  Bohemian  nobleman,  Kosinsky,  under  the 
pressure  of  wrong  and  outrage,  joins  Moor's  robber-band,  or 
when  Karl  Moor  himself  denounces  with  burning  eloquence 
the  tyranny  of  State  and  ruler,  of  Church  and  social  usage, 
of  civilisation  itself,  Schiller  speaks  straight  from  his  own 
rebellious  heart. 

"Das  Gesez,"  he  cries,  "hat  zum  Schneckengang  verdorben, 
was  Adlerflug  gcworden  ware.  Das  Gesez  hat  noch  keinen  gros- 
sen  Mann  gebildet,  aber  die  Freyheit  briitet  Kolosse  und  Ex- 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  331 

tremitaten  aus.  .  .  .  Stelle  mich  vor  ein  Heer  Kerls  wie  ich,  und 
aus  Deutschland  soil  eine  Republik  warden,  gegen  die  Rom  und 
Sparta  Nonnenkloster  sein  sollen." 

Or  again  in  the  scene  with  the  Pater  at  the  close  of  the  second 
act: — 

"  Da  donnern  sie  Sanfftmuth  und  Duldung  aus  ihren  Wolken, 
und  bringen  dern  Gott  der  Liebe  Menschenopfer,  wie  einem  feuer- 
armigen  Moloch — predigen  Liebe  des  Nachsten,  und  fluchen  den 
achtzigjahrigen  Blinden  von  ihren  Thiiren  hinweg: — stiirmen  wider 
den  Geiz,  und  haben  Peru  um  goldner  Spangen  willen  entvolkert 
und  die  Heyden  wie  Zugvieh  vor  ihre  Wagen  gespannt.  .  .  .  O  iiber 
euch  Pharisaer,  each  Falschmiinzer  der  Wahrheit,  euch  AfTen  der 
Gottheit ! " * 

JE)ie  Rauber,  published  privately  and  anonymously  in  1781, 
was  received  with  an  enthusiasm  which  soon  made  a  second 
edition  necessary.  The  first  performance,  for  which  Schiller 
had  prepared  a  special  version,  took  place  at  Mannheim  in 
the  beginning  of  1782,  and  met  with  equally  great  success, 
the  only  shadow  on  the  happiness  of  the  young  poet — who  was 
present — being  that  he  had  to  some  extent  outgrown  his  work. 
He  had  by  this  time  definitely  resolved  to  devote  himself  to 
literature ;  he  was  not  only  the  anonymous  author  of  the 
Rauber>  but  had  also  published  a  lyric  Anthologie  auf  das  Jahr  Anthologie 
1782,  which,  however,  shows  rather  the  crudity  and  unripeness  aufdai 
of  the  beginner  than  the  genius  to  which  the  tragedy  bears 
witness.  Schiller's  position  in  Stuttgart  was  meanwhile  be- 
coming more  and  more  untenable.  The  Duke  was  firm  in  his 
determination  that,  whatever  reputation  the  poet  might  gain, 
he  should  remain  army-surgeon  in  Wiirtemberg  and  nothing 
more.  Schiller  had  before  him  a  warning  example  in  the  fate 
of  his  fellow-countryman,  the  poet  and  musician  C.  F.  D. 
Schubart  ( 1 739-9 1),2  who,  in  1777,  was  lured  by  Duke  Karl  C.  F.  D. 
Eugen  into  Wiirtemberg,  arrested,  and  thrown  into  the  castle  Schubart« 
of  Hohenasperg.  His  crime,  for  which  he  atoned  with  ten 
years'  imprisonment  in  this  fortress,  was  the  revolutionary  tone 
of  his  review,  the  Deutsche  Chronik  (begun  in  1 774),  aggravated 
by  some  tactless  personal  attacks  on  the  Duke.  As  a  poet, 
Schubart's  sympathies  were  with  Klopstock  and  the  Gottingen 

1  Sammtliche  Schriften,  2,  30  and  104. 

a  Cp.  A.  Sauer,  Sturmer  und  Dranger,  3  (D.N.L.,  81  fl883])>  29l  ff-  A 
complete  edition  of  Schubart's  Gedichfe  in  Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  No. 
1821-1824,  ed.  G.  Hauff,  Leipzig,  1884. 


332 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


School.  Die  Fiirstengruft  (1779  or  1780),  his  most  famous 
poem,  written  in  prison,  is  a  philippic  against  tyrants  which 
recalls  the  odes  of  Voss  and  Stolberg : — 

"  Da  liegen  sie,  die  stolzen  Fiirstentriimmer, 

Ehmals  die  Gotzen  ihrer  Welt ! 
Da  liegen  sie,  vom  furchterlichen  Schimmer 
Des  blassen  Tags  erhellt !  "  1 

The  poet  is  seen,  however,  in  a  more  advantageous  light 
in  some  of  his  Gedichte  aus  dem  Kerker  (1785-86) — Der 
Gefangene,  for  instance — and  in  the  fine  song  in  praise  of 
colonisation,  Das  Kaplied  (1787). 

Buoyed  by  the  hopes  he  placed  in  Dalberg,  the  intendant 
of  the  Mannheim  Court  Theatre,  where  Die  Rduber  had 
been  produced,  Schiller  at  last  resolved  upon  flight;  and  his 
plan  was  successfully  carried  out  on  the  evening  of  the  2znd 
of  September,  1782.  But  in  Mannheim,  bitter  disappoint- 
ments awaited  him ;  almost  a  year  elapsed  before  he  received 
the  appointment  he  coveted  of  "  Theatre  poet "  in  that  town. 
Ready  as  Dalberg  had  been  to  welcome  the  young  army- 
official  from  Wiirtemberg  who  wrote  Die  Rauber,  he  was 
naturally  little  inclined  to  extend  the  same  favour  to  Schiller 
the  deserter.  The  young  man's  position  was  for  a  time 
desperate,  until,  thanks  to  the  good-hearted  Henriette  von 
Wolzogen,  mother  of  one  of  his  fellow-students,  he  found  a 
place  of  refuge  in  the  secluded  Thuringian  village  of  Bauer- 
bach.  Here  he  arranged  the  stage  version  of  his  second  play, 
Fiesco — it  was  already  written  before  he  made  his  escape  from 
Stuttgart — and  finished  his  third  tragedy,  Louise  Millerin,  or, 
as  Iffland  rechristened  it,  Kabale  und  Liebe. 

Die  Verschworung  des  Fiesko  (Fiesco)  zu  Genua  (1783)  is 
a  more  ambitious  effort  than  Die  Riiuber ;  but  poetically 
it  falls  short  of  the  latter,  the  author  being  obviously  less  in 
sympathy  with  the  subject.  In  turning  to  the  story  of  Fiesco 
di  Lavagna's  conspiracy  against  the  great  house  of  Doria  in 
Genoa,  Schiller  was  attacking  a  theme  which  lay  as  yet 
beyond  his  powers :  Fiesco  is  not  only  the  tragedy  of  an 
individual,  but  also  of  a  state.  At  the  same  time,  he  un- 
rolled in  this  play  a  succession  of  interesting  scenes,  and 
the  dramatis  persona  are  a  marked  advance  upon  those  of 

1  A.  Sauer,  I.e.,  3,  375. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  333 

Die  Rtiuber.  The  women,  it  is  true,  are  still  the  conven- 
tional puppets  whose  acquaintance  Schiller  had  made  only 
in  books,  but  none  of  them  is  quite  so  colourless  as  Amalia. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  remarkable  power  of  dramatic  char- 
acterisation is  to  be  seen  in  figures  like  Fiesco  himself, 
the  noble  republican  Verrina,  and,  above  all,  in  the  Moor, 
Fiesco's  tool.  It  is  these  characters,  the  human,  if  not  the 
political,  interest  of  the  intrigue,  and  the  crisp,  epigrammatic 
— sometimes,  too  epigrammatic — language  which  give  Schiller's 
first  historical  drama  the  place  it  still  holds  upon  the  national 
stage. 

While  in  Fiesco  Schiller  aimed  at  creating  a  political  tragedy 
on  the  Shakespearian  lines  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  he 
returned,  in  his  next  play,  Kabale  und  Liebe  (1784),  to  the  Kabale 
"biirgerliche  Trauerspiel"  which,  since  Emilia  Galotti,  had  Liebe^ 
attained  such  popularity  on  the  German  stage.  Kabale  und 
Liebe  and  Emilia  Galotti  are  typical  of  two  distinct  epochs  of 
German  literature.  Emilia,  clear,  concise,  well  balanced, 
well  constructed,  belongs  wholly  to  the  century  of  the 
"  Auf klarung  " ;  it  is  the  poetry  of  an  age  of  prose.  Kabale 
und  Liebe,  on  the  other  hand,  throbs  with  new  poetic  life  and 
kindles  the  reader's  imagination.  Emilia  presents  us  with 
an  unchanging  picture  of  certain  aspects  of  Court  life,  while 
Schiller's  tragedy  calls  up  before  our  minds  the  entire  milieu 
of  a  petty  German  Court.  In  Lessing,  all  lies  on  the  printed 
page :  Schiller  suggests  a  many-coloured  relief.  Kabale  und 
Liebe  is  fhe  best  "  tragedy  of  common  life "  in  the  literature 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Like  Emilia  Galotti,  Schiller's  drama  plays  in  a  provincial 
"Residenz,"  and  the  petty  intrigues  of  the  Court  form  the 
background  of  the  action.  Ferdinand,  son  of  the  President 
von  Walter,  an  official  who  by  dubious  methods  has  obtained 
complete  control  of  the  affairs  of  the  little  State,  loves  the 
daughter  of  a  musician,  Miller.  The  President  will  naturally 
hear  nothing  of  a  marriage,  intending  instead  to  marry  his 
son  to  Lady  Milford,  a  cast-off  mistress  of  the  reigning  Duke. 
The  attempt  to  separate  the  lovers  by  straightforward  means 
fails,  and  the  President,  following  the  counsel  of  his  secretary, 
Wurm,  has  recourse  to  deceit.  Louise,  in  the  belief  that  her 
father's  life  depends  on  her  sacrifice,  is  forced  to  write,  at 
Wurm's  dictation,  a  letter  in  which  she  appears  to  be  carry- 


334  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

ing  on  an  intrigue  with  a  Court  official,  Marshal  von  Kalb. 
This  letter  is  played  into  Ferdinand's  hands,  and  Louise's 
oath  prevents  an  explanation  until  she  has  drunk  the  poisoned 
lemonade  which  her  lover  has  prepared  for  her  and  for  him- 
self. The  President  and  his  secretary  arrive  in  time  to 
see  the  results  of  their  intrigue,  and,  as  the  drama  closes, 
they  are  handed  over  to  justice  for  their  earlier  mis- 
demeanours. 

In  some  measure  Kabale  und  Liebe  is,  like  its  two  prede- 
cessors, a  political  tragedy ;  it,  too,  bids  tyranny  defiance  and 
breathes  revolution.  But  the  politics  of  the  drama  are  over- 
shadowed by  its  purely  poetic  strength.  Its  kernel  is  neither, 
as  in  Die  Rauber,  an  open  revolt  against  tyranny,  nor,  as  in 
Fiesco,  a  conspiracy ;  Kabale  und  Liebe  is  essentially  a  love 
story,  and  Ferdinand  and  Louise  stand,  like  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  in  the  foreground  of  the  action.  Ferdinand  is  not 
always  a  convincing  lover,  but  he  has  enough  in  him  of  the 
youthful  enthusiasm  of  Karl  Moor  to  awaken  our  sympathy ; 
he  is  still  human  and  individual,  and  contrasts  favourably  with 
the  conventional  types  of  youth,  the  Maxes  and  Mortimers, 
who  appear  in  the  dramas  of  Schiller's  riper  years.  The 
other  male  characters  of  the  play  are  admirably  drawn,  and 
although  none  of  them  is  as  interesting  as  the  Moor  in  Fiesco, 
they  are  all  more  clearly  focussed  than  the  figures  in  the 
earlier  play.  The  two  fathers,  Miller  the  musician  and  the 
President,  are  admirably  contrasted ;  Wurm  is  modelled  on 
Lessing's  Marinelli,  and  Kalb  is  Schiller's  most  successful 
experiment  in  satirical  caricature.  But  the  greatest  advance  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  two  women,  Louise  and  Lady  Milford.  The 
latter  is  one  of  the  best  female  portraits  Schiller  ever  drew ; 
she  is  a  more  sympathetic  creation — more  of  a  tragic  heroine 
— than  her  prototype,  Grafin  Orsini,  although  occasionally 
the  young  poet  shows  his  limitations  by  emphasising  the 
aristocrat  in  Lady  Milford  rather  than  the  woman.  Louise, 
when  compared  with  Goethe's  or  Lenz's  heroines,  is  con- 
ventional and  theatrical,  but  she  is  involved  in  a  conflict  of 
such  overpowering  interest  that  the  reader  is  ready  to  over- 
look her  lack  of  simplicity  in  thought  and  speech. 

Even  after  all  three  dramas  *  had  found  warm  recognition 

1  Cp.  on  Schiller's  early  dramas,  A.  Kontz,  Lei  drames  de  la  jeunesse  de 
Schiller,  Paris,  1899. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  335 

throughout    Germany  —  Kabale  und  Liebe  was   produced  in 
Frankfort  and  Mannheim  about  three  months  after  Fiesco — 
Schiller's  position  changed  little  for  the  better.      His  con- 
nection with  the   Mannheim  theatre  lasted  only  for  a  year, 
and,  when  this  was  over,  he  was  at  the  mercy  of  creditors. 
As  a  final  resource  he  turned  to  journalism,  and  in  the  spring 
of  1785,  the  first  number  of  Die  Rheinische  Thalia  appeared,   Die  Rhei- 
a  periodical  which  he  succeeded  in  keeping  alive  under  vary-  n^s^ia 
ing  fortunes  as  Die  Thalia  (1785-91)  and  Die  neue  Thalia,    1785. 
down  to  1793.     In  June  1784,  he  received  a  friendly  letter 
from   four  young  admirers  of  his   poetry  in   Leipzig,   C.   F. 
Korner,   who    remained   through    life   his   closest  friend,    L. 
Huber,  and  their  jiancees,  the  sisters  Minna  and  Dora  Stock, 
and,  nine  months  later,  he  accepted  an  invitation — a  welcome 
solution    to    his   difficulties — to  visit   them.      While   still   in 
Mannheim,  Schiller  experienced  the   first  and  probably  the 
only  great  passion  of  his  life,  the  object  of  which  was  the 
brilliant  Charlotte  von  Kalb,  wife  of  a  French  officer.     Some  Charlotte 
idea  of  the  intensity  of  the  poet's  feelings  may  be  obtained  von  Kalb- 
from  their  reflection  in  the  love  of  Don  Carlos  for  Elisabeth, 
or  in  the  poems  entitled  Freigeisterei  der  Leidenschaft  (Der 
Kampf)  and  Resignation : — 

"  Nein — langer  langer  werd  ich  diesen  Kampf  nicht  kampfen, 

den  Riesenkampf  der  Pflicht. 

Kannst  du  des  Herzens  Flammentrieb  nicht  dampfen, 
so  fodre,  Tugend,  dieses  Opfer  nicht. 

Geschworen  hab  ichs,  ja,  ich  habs  geschworen, 

mich  selbst  ?.u  bandijjen. 
Hier  ist  dein  Kranz.     Er  sey  auf  ewig  mir  verloren, 

nimm  ihn  zurilck  und  lass  mich  siindigen."  * 

1  Schriften,  4,  23. 


336 


CHAPTER   IX. 

SCHILLER'S  SECOND  PERIOD.     END  OF  THE 
"STURM  UND  DRANG." 

IN  April  1785,  Schiller  accepted  the  invitation  of  his  un- 
known friends  in  Leipzig.  The  chief  of  them,  Korner,  had 
already  gone  to  Dresden  as  "  Oberkonsistorialrat,"  but  the 
poet  received  a  hearty  welcome  from  the  others,  and  spent 
the  summer  months  in  the  village  of  Gohlis  near  Leipzig.  In 
the  autumn,  he  followed  Korner  to  Dresden.  The  chief  event 
of  the  summer  was  Korner's  marriage,  for  which  Schiller  wrote 
a  poem  of  many  strophes.  But  the  change  which  came  over 
the  poet's  life  is  better  expressed  in  the  jubilant  paeon,  An  die 
Freude  (1785),  written  about  the  same  time. 

"  Freude,  schoner  Gdtterfiinken, 

Tochter  aus  Elisium, 
Wir  betreten  feuertrunken 

Himmlische,  dein  Heiligthum. 
Deine  Zauber  binden  wieder, 

Was  die  Mode  streng  getheilt ; 
Alle  Menschen  werden  Briider, 

Wo  dein  sanfter  Flugel  weilt. 

Seid  umschlungen,  Millionen  ! 

Diesen  Kuss  der  ganzen  Welt ! 

Briider — iiberm  Sternenzelt 
Muss  ein  lieber  Vater  wohnen."1 

This  passionate  hymn  to  joy  and  friendship  not  only,  like  the 
odes  of  Klopstock  and  Uz,  recalls  the  antique  in  form  and 
measure ;  its  ideas,  too,  have  more  of  the  dithyrambic  fervour 
of  Pindar  than  of  the  Germanic  enthusiasm  of  Schiller's 
predecessors ;  it  is  a  union  of  Greek  ideals  with  the  great- 
hearted humanitarianism  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

During  the  quiet,  peaceful  months  which  Schiller  spent  in 

1  Sc/triffen,  4,  i ;  the  text  quoted  is  that  of  the  Gedichte  (1803),  2,  121. 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  337 

Dresden  and  its  neighbourhood,  he  was  mainly  occupied  with 
contributions  to  the  Thalia  and  with  his  next  drama,  Don 
Carlos.     For  the  Thalia  he  wrote  two  short  stories,  Verbrecher 
aus  Infamie  (1787)  and  the  Geisterseher  (1789),  both  conces-  Der  Geis- 
sions  to  the  prevalent  taste  of  the  time  rather  than  creations  f*r*eAert 
which  add  to  the  poet's  repute.     Der  Geisterseher  is  well-con- 
structed, and  contains  many  pages  of  admirable  description, 
but  it  is  overweighted  with  crass  and  sensational  magic  effects 
— suggested  by  the  career  of  Cagliostro — by  means  of  which 
a  young  prince  is  made  a  convert  to  Catholicism. 

Don  Carlos,  Infant  von  Spanien,  or,  as  it  was  entitled  in  Don  Car- 
the  early  editions,  Dom  Carlos  (1787),  is  a  work  of  very  Ios>*7z7- 
different  calibre.  With  this  tragedy,  Schiller  won  for  him- 
self a  new  domain  of  his  art  and  enormously  increased  his 
fame  as  a  dramatic  poet ;  in  form  and  style,  it  is  a  com- 
plete break  with  the  three  prose  dramas  that  preceded  it. 
The  poet  had  also,  it  is  true,  begun  Don  Carlos  in  prose, 
but  he  ultimately  wrote  it  in  the  iambic  blank  verse  which 
Lessing  had  established  on  the  German  stage  with  Nathan 
der  Weise.1  Although  Don  Carlos  thus  opens  the  series 
of  Schiller's  dramas  in  verse,  the  ideas  contained  in  it  are 
still  juvenile  and  reminiscent  of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"; 
a  wider  gulf  divides  it  from  Wallenstein  than  from  Fiesco  or 
even  Die  Rduber.  The  plot  of  Don  Carlos,  a  plot  to  which 
the  English  dramatist,  Otway,  had  been  drawn  more  than  a 
hundred  years  before  Schiller,  centres  in  the  love  of  the 
Spanish  heir-apparent,  Don  Carlos,  for  his  stepmother  Eliza- 
beth. The  king  is  led  by  his  confessor  Domingo  and  the 
cruel  Duke  of  Alba  to  suspect  his  son ;  Princess  Eboli,  a 
lady  of  the  Court,  who  is  herself  passionately  in  love  with 
Carlos,  is  the  means  of  this  suspicion  becoming  a  certainty. 
Meanwhile,  Carlos's  attempts  to  stifle  his  feelings  by  devoting 
himself  to  an  active  political  life  are  baffled  by  the  circum- 
stances which  hedge  in  a  king's  son ;  a  tragic  issue  to  his 
passion  is  the  only  possible  one,  and  his  father  surprises  him 

1  As  early  as  the  seventeenth  century,  attempts  had  been  made  to  adapt 
English  blank  verse  to  German  requirements.  Gottsched  regarded  it  favour- 
ably, but  Bodmer,  as  was  to  be  expected,  was  its  chief  advocate.  J.  E. 
Schlegel,  Wieland,  Klopstock,  Brawe,  Weisse,  and  Gotter,  all  wrote  dramas 
in  iambic  verse  before  Lessing's  Nathan,  and  even  Goethe  had  experimented 
with  it  in  his  youth  (Be/sazar,  1765).  Cp.  A.  Sauer,  Ober  den  fiinffusrigen 
Jambus  vor  Lessings  Nathan,  Vienna,  1878. 

Y 


338  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

in  a  stolen  interview  with  the  queen,  and  delivers  him  into  the 
hands  of  the  Grand  Inquisitor.  In  the  matter  of  construction, 
this  drama  is  inferior  to  its  predecessors.  The  characters, 
too,  are  more  shadowy  than  those  of  the  early  works ;  they 
seem  to  suffer  from  the  restraint  caused  by  the  adoption  of 
verse.  Don  Carlos  is  a  play  of  intrigue  and  misunderstand- 
ings ;  there  is  a  lack  of  tragic  dignity  in  the  decisive  moments 
of  Don  Carlos's  fate,  and  the  poet  does  not  always  give  his 
intrigue  the  semblance  of  probability.  The  most  serious  defect 
in  it,  however,  is  its  lack  of  unity.  Originally  planned  while 
the  poet  was  engrossed  by  his  passion  for  Charlotte  von  Kalb, 
it  was  to  have  been  only  a  "  domestic  tragedy  in  a  royal 
house,"  and  in  this  spirit  the  first  three  acts  were  written  and 
published  in  the  Rheinische  Thalia  in  I785.1  But  when 
Schiller,  in  the  contentment  of  his  Dresden  life,  revised  these 
acts  and  wrote  the  remaining  two,  his  interest  in  his  hero 
had  grown  cold ;  another  character  of  the  play  took  a  more 
prominent  place  in  the  foreground,  namely,  the  friend  of  Don 
Carlos,  the  Maltese  knight,  Marquis  Posa.  The  domestic 
tragedy  was  converted  into  a  tragedy  of  political  principles, 
love  intrigue  gave  place  to  a  flaming  plea  for  freedom,  and 
Marquis  Posa,  who  wins  the  king's  favour  by  his  avowal  that 
he  cannot  be  a  "  Fiirstendiener,"  became  the  real  hero  of 
the  play.  In  the  scene  between  Posa  and  Philipp  in  the 
third  act  is  concentrated  some  of  the  noblest  political 
thought  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  Posa's  cosmopolitan 
idealism  points  out  the  way  that  was  leading  to  the  French 
Revolution.  "  Sie  wollen,"  he  tells  the  king : — 

"  Sie  wollen 

Allein  in  ganz  Europa — sich  dem  Rade 
Des  Weltverhangnisses,  das  unaufhaltsam 
In  vollem  Laufe  rollt,  entgegen  werfen? 
Mit  Menschenarm  in  seine  Speichen  fallen  ? 
Sie  werden  nicht !     Schon  flohen  Tausende 
Aus  Ihren  Landern  froh  und  arm.     Der  Burger, 
Den  Sie  verloren  fiir  den  Glauben,  war 
Ihr  edelster  .  .  . 

O,  konnte  die  Beredsamkeit  von  alien 
Den  Tausenden,  die  dieser  grosser  Stunde 
Theilhaftig  sind,  auf  meinen  Lippen  schweben, 
Den  Strahl  den  ich  in  diesen  Augen  merke, 
Zur  Flamme  zu  erheben  !  .  .  . 


1  Reprinted  in  the  Schriften,  5,  i,  i  ft ;  in  its  final  form,  5,  a,  142  ff. 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  339 

Alle  Konige 

Europens  huldigen  dem  Span'sclien  Namen. 
Gehn  Sie  Europens  Kdnigen  voran. 
Ein  Federzug  von  dieser  Hand,  und  neu 
Erschaffen  wird  die  Erde.     Geben  Sie 
Gedankenfreyheit." l 

With  the  completion  of  Don  Carlos,  Schiller's  "  Lehrjahre  " 
reached  their  close ;  about  the  same  time,  the  poet  came  into 
touch  with  the  Weimar  circle,  to  which,  since  the  day  in 
Darmstadt  in  1784,  when  he  read  the  first  act  of  Don  Carlos 
before  the  Duke  of  Weimar,  it  had  been  his  ambition  to 
belong.  In  the  summer  of  1787,  he  paid  his  first  visit  to 
Weimar.  Only,  however,  disappointments  were  in  store  for  schillerin 
him  here :  Goethe  was  in  Italy,  the  Duke  absent ;  Herder  Weimar, 
and  Wieland  received  him  politely  but  without  enthusiasm. 
Schiller  withdrew  into  himself,  and  spent  his  time  in  sup- 
plementing deficiencies  in  his  knowledge.  He  began  by 
throwing  himself  ardently  into  the  study  of  history.  In 
the  winter  of  1787-88  and  the  ensuing  summer,  he  wrote 
the  Geschichte  des  Abfalls  der  vereinigten  Niederlandey  of  Historical 
which  the  first  and  only  volume — it  was  originally  planned  wntings' 
in  six — appeared  in  the  autumn  of  1788.  This  was  followed 
in  1791-93  by  a  second  large  historical  work,  the  Geschichte 
des  dreissigjdJirigen  Krieges,  as  well  as  a  number  of  shorter 
historical  studies  and  investigations.  Schiller's  qualities  as  a 
historian  are,  as  might  be  expected,  in  the  first  instance, 
literary  •  he  treated  the  writing  of  history  as  an  art,  and  gave 
German  historians  a  lesson  in  style.  But  he  did  not  possess 
the  judicial  mind  or  the  scientific  method  of  the  born  his- 
torian, and  ideas  rather  than  facts  mark  the  course  of  his 
histories.  The  interest  of  the  poet  in  Don  Carlos  led  him 
to  write  the  history  of  the  Netherlands,  a  similar  interest 
in  Wallenstein  attracted  him  to  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 
Regarded  as  history,  the  second  of  these  works  is  the 
least  successful.  Schiller  did  not  understand  the  compli- 
cated national  problems  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War;  he  was 
content  to  look  upon  it  as  a  duel  between  two  religious 
principles,  and,  as  soon  as  the  representative  leaders,  Wallen- 
stein and  Tilly,  disappeared,  the  war  lost  its  interest  for 
him.  Sympathetic  ideas  and  great  personalities  were  what 

1  Schriflen,  5,  2,  313  ff. 


340 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.          [PART  IV. 


Professor 
in  Jena. 


he  sought  in  history;  when  he  found  them,  he  expended 
upon  them  all  the  wealth  of  his  poetic  imagination  and  full- 
sounding  rhetoric.  Thus,  even  allowing  for  the  change  that 
has  come  over  the  spirit  of  history  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
Schiller  does  not  occupy  a  high  place  as  historian.  The 
representative  German  writer  of  this  class  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  Johannes  von  Miiller  (1752-1809), 
whose  chief  work,  the  Geschichte  schweizerischer  Eidgenossen- 
schaft  (1786-1808),  is  still  recognised  as  a  masterpiece  of 
historical  writing. 

It  was  chiefly  due  to  the  Geschichte  des  Abfalls  der  ver- 
einigten  Niederlande  that  Schiller  obtained,  through  Goethe's 
mediation,  the  vacant  professorship  of  History  in  the 
University  of  Jena.  In  May,  1789,  he  held  his  first  lecture 
in  the  university;  in  February  of  the  following  year,  he 
married  Charlotte  von  Lengefeld,  a  relative  of  his  former 
benefactress,  Frau  von  Wolzogen.  Schiller's  acquaintance 
with  Charlotte  dated  from  December,  1787,  and,  in  Rudolstadt 
in  the  following  summer,  this  acquaintance  ripened  into  love. 
His  marriage  helped  him  to  'forget  his  disappointments  in 
Weimar,  for,  in  1790,  he  was  still  not  a  recognised  member 
of  the  literary  circle  there.  Between  Goethe  and  him  there 
seemed  to  be  a  feeling  of  mutual  distrust.  Schiller  worked 
himself  into  the  belief  that  he  actually  hated  Goethe,  while 
in  reality  he  only  envied  him  his  good  fortune.  Goethe,  on 
his  part,  could  not  free  himself  from  the  disagreeable  im- 
pression he  had  received  from  Schiller's  work  on  his  return 
from  Italy.  The  criticism  of  Burger's  poetry  which  Schiller 
wrote  in  1791,  for  the  Jenaische  Allgemeine  Literatur-Zeitung 
— a  criticism  in  which  his  antagonism  to  the  principles  of  the 
Romantic  School  may  already  be  detected  —  gave  Goethe  a 
higher  opinion  of  his  abilities ;  and  the  noble  verses  on  Die 

Die  Cotter  Gotter  Griechenlands  (1788)  convinced  him  that  Schiller  was 
a  poet  of  no  mean  order.  This  poem  bears  witness  to 
the  ardour  with  which  Schiller  had  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  Greek  literature  opened  up  to  him  by  Voss's 
Homer.  In  1789,  he  translated  the  Iphigenia  in  Aulis  of 
Euripides,  and  his  Greek  interests  explain  to  some  extent  his 
antipathy  to  Burger ;  they,  too,  lie  behind  that  wonderful  con- 

Die  Kitnsi-  fession  of  faith,  Die  Kilnstler  (1789),  a  poem  which  contains 
the  germs  of  all  Schiller's  theorising  on  aesthetic  questions. 


Griechen- 

lands, 

1788. 


Urt  1789. 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  34! 

In  the  routine  of  professional  duties  he  was,  meanwhile,  gradu- 
ally losing  his  enthusiasm  for  history ;  his  thoughts  turned  to 
philosophy,  a  subject  which  had  engrossed  him  in  earlier  life, 
and  he  fell  under  the  spell  of  Immanuel  Kant,  whose  work 
had  just  given  a  mighty  impetus  to  German  metaphysics. 

To  understand  what  Schiller's  dramas  meant  for  German 
literature,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  condition  of  dramatic 
literature  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Since 
the  failure  of  Lessing's  attempt  to  create  a  National  Theatre 
in  Hamburg,  the  German  theatre  as  an  institution  had 
gained  in  stability,  and  this  stability  was  chiefly  due  to 
Friedrich  Ludwig  Schroder  (I744-I8I6),1  the  leading  Ger-  F.  L. 
man  actor  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Schroder  succeeded  f 
where  Lessing's  friends  had  failed,  in  giving  Hamburg  a 
permanent  "  Schauspielhaus  " ;  he  may,  indeed,  be  regarded  as 
the  creator  of  the  modern  German  stage.  During  the  period 
of  his  directorship  in  Hamburg,  he  laid  down  the  lines  on 
which  the  state  and  municipal  theatres  of  Germany  are  still 
conducted  ;  it  was  he,  for  instance,  who  set  Shakespeare's  plays 
at  the  head  of  the  classical  repertory,  a  place  which  they  have 
never  ceased  to  occupy.  But  Schroder's  theatre  suffered 
from  the  want  of  a  living  dramatic  literature.  Lessing's 
dramas,  although  the  best  before  the  "Sturm  und  Drang," 
were,  as  we  have  seen,  difficult  to  imitate  with  success, 
being  deficient  in  that  peculiar  germinative  quality  which 
inspired  poetic  work,  however  crude,  never  lacks.  Thus  the 
repertory  of  the  German  theatres  before  the  appearance  of 
Goethe  and  Schiller's  masterpieces  consisted  chiefly  of  in- 
different "  biirgerliche  Tragodien  "  varied  by  sentimental  and 
lachrymose  adaptations  from  the  English  and  French. 
Schroder  himself  provided  the  stage  with  a  large  number  of 
such  adaptations,  the  best  of  which  were  Der  Ring  (1783), 
a  version  of  Farquhar's  Constant  Couple,  Der  Vetter  in 
Lissabon  (1784),  and,  most  effective  of  all,  Das  Portrat  der 
Mutter  (1786). 

The  first  town  to  follow  Hamburg's  example  in  establish- 
ing a  theatre  on  a  permanent  basis  was  Mannheim,  where,  ?  >eMann- 
in   1779,  the   "  Nationaltheater "  was  inaugurated  under  the  theatre. 

1  Cp.  B.  Litzmann,  F.  L.  Schroder  (two  vols.  have  appeared),  Hamburg, 
1890-94.  Cp.  A.  Hauffen,  Das  Drama  der  klassischen  Periode,  2,  i  (D.N.L., 
139.  i  [1891]),  85  ff. 


342 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


The"Rit- 
terdrama.' 


direction  of  W.  H.  von  Dalberg,  and  in  Mannheim  the  first 
performance  of  Schiller's  Rduber  had  taken  place.  Here,  too, 
Der  deutsche  Hausvater^  by  Otto  Heinrich  von  Gemmingen 
(1755-1836),  a  companion  piece  to  Diderot's  Pere  de  famille 
(1758),  was  produced,  in  1780.  Der  deutsche  Hausvater, 
which  had  considerable  influence  upon  the  subsequent  de- 
velopment of  the  German  "biirgerliche  Tragodie,"  is  similar 
in  plot  to  Kabale  und  Liebe,  but  has  little  literary  value. 
The  importance  of  the  theatre  in  Mannheim  for  the  history 
of  the  drama  is  mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  at  this  time  the 
ablest  member  of  its  staff  was  August  Wilhelm  IfBand  (1759- 
i8i4).2  Iffland  had  served  his  apprenticeship  under  the 
actor  Konrad  Ekhof  (1720-78),  and  in  Mannheim  rose  rapidly 
to  be  the  first  actor  of  his  time.  Although  not  a  pioneer 
as  Schroder  had  been,  he  was,  beyond  question,  the  chief 
force  in  the  theatrical  world,  at  the  zenith  of  German 
classical  literature.  Under  his  direction,  from  1796  until  his 
death  in  1814,  the  Prussian  National  Theatre  in  Berlin  was 
the  most  important  institution  of  its  kind  in  North  Germany. 
Iffland  had,  moreover,  a  finer  literary  talent  than  Schroder,  and 
among  the  sixty-five  plays  that  he  has  left,  several,  such  as 
Die  Jager  (1785),  Die  Hagestolzen  (1791),  and  Der  Spieler 
(1796),  are  by  no  means  contemptible  as  literature.  Most 
of  his  pieces,  however,  are  disfigured  by  a  somewhat  tearful 
sentimentality  and  a  blatant  insistence  on  morality,  but  they 
were  effective  on  the  stage,  afforded  excellent  roles,  and  gave 
a  true  picture  of  the  life  and  manners  of  the  time. 

The  dramatic  work  of  Schroder  and  Iffland  represented  a 
similar  stratum  in  the  drama  to  that  formed  by  the  "  family 
novel " — which  continued  to  be  the  favourite  nutriment  of  the 
reading  public — in  fiction.  But  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  existed  a  still  lower  form  of  the 
drama,  the  so-called  "  Ritterdrama,"  into  which  the  historical 
tragedy  of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  had  degenerated.  This 
class  of  play  maintained  a  place  on  the  German  stage  until 
well  into  the  nineteenth  century,  and  was  analogous  to 
the  "  Schauerromane "  or  "  tales  of  terror,"  which  formed  so 
large  a  proportion  of  the  fiction  of  this  period.  The  "  Ritter- 


1  Cp.  A.  Hauffen,  I.e.,  i  ff. 

2  Cp.  A.  Hauffen,  I.e.,  189  ff.      Iffland's  Meine  theatralische  Laujbahn  has 
been  reprinted  by  H.  Holstein  in  the  Litteraturdenkm.,  24,  Heilbronn,  1886. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  343 

drama  "  followed  closely  in  the  wake  of  Gotz  von  Berlichingen^ 
but  it  is  obvious  that  the  imitation  of  Goethe's  tragedy  was 
a  wholly  superficial  one ;  the  rattle  of  armour,  the  dungeon 
and  Holy  Vehm,  the  rough  mediaevalism  of  word  and  deed 
— these  were  the  features  which  the  "  Ritterdrama "  had  in 
common  with  its  model.  It  is  significant  for  the  degenerate 
character  of  these  "  plays  of  chivalry  "  that  the  first,  Klinger's 
Otto  (1775),  should  never  have  been  surpassed.  Such 
literary  pretensions  as  the  authors  of  the  "  Ritterdramen " 
had,  were  annulled  by  the  absence  of  character  -  drawing, 
and  by  the  blood-curdling  sensationalism  in  which  they 
dealt.  Apart  from  Klinger,  the  two  leading  playwrights  of 
this  class  are  Graf  J.  A.  von  Torring  (1753-1826),  whose 
popular  Agnes  Bernauerin  was  played  in  1780,  and  Joseph 
Marius  Babo  (1756-1822),  the  author  of  Otto  von  Wittels- 
bach,  published  in  1782.  Both  plays,  it  may  also  be  noted, 
were  produced  in  Munich,  where  the  "Ritterdrama"  was 
warmly  encouraged.  Another  South  German  dramatist,  Graf 
F.  J.  H.  von  Soden  (1754-1831),  whose  chief  interest,  how- 
ever, was  political  economy,  was  the  author  of  a  chivalric 
tragedy,  Ignez  de  Castro  (1784)  and  a  "  Volksdrama"  on  the 
subject  of  Doktor  Faust  (i  797). x 

Of  the  Germanic  races,  the  Austrians  would  seem  to  The  drama 
possess  most  natural  talent  for  the  drama ;  the  theatre  is  In  Austria- 
a  more  universally  popular  institution  in  Vienna  than  in 
any  other  German-speaking  capital.  Since  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Viennese  "Volksth eater"  has 
never  lacked  popular  actors:  J.  A.  Stranitzky  (1676-1727) 
naturalised  the  Italian  commedia  dell'  arte  in  Vienna,  and  his 
successor,  Gottfried  Prehauser  (1699-1769),  made  the  "Hans- 
wurst"  the  typical  comic  character  on  the  Viennese  stage. 
The  serious  history  of  the  Austrian  theatre  begins,  however,  in 
1776,  when  Joseph  II.  practically  founded  the  "Hofburg-  TheHof- 

theater,"  the  most  important  of  all  German  theatres.2     For  a  b,urs- 

.     .  ,%.  .  .    .  theater, 

time,  it  is  true,  the  Viennese  theatre  depended  mainly  upon 

North  German  dramatists ;  Austria's  contributions  to  German 
dramatic  literature,  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century, 

1  Cp.  O.  Brahm,  Das  deutsche  Ritterdrama  des  18.  Jahrhunderts  (Quellen 
vnd  Forschungen,  40),  Strassburg,   1880.      Specimens   will  be  found  in  A. 
Hauffen's   Das   Drama   der  klassischen   Penode,   i    (D.N.L.,    138   [1891]); 
Klinger's  Otto  is  reprinted  in  Litteraturdenkm. ,  i,  Heilbronn,  1881. 

2  Cp.  R.  Lothar,  Das  Weiner  Burgtheater,  Leipzig,  1899. 


344 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


consisted  of  little  more  than  imitations  of  Minna  von  Barn- 
helm,  and  family  tragedies  in  the  manner  of  Iffland.  The 
name  of  only  one  dramatist  need  be  mentioned  here,  Cor- 
nelius Hermann  von  Ayrenhoff  (1733-1819),  an  Austrian 
officer  of  high  rank,  who  cultivated  the  French  Alexandrine 
tragedy  in  Austria,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  belated 
follower  of  Gottsched.  One  of  his  comedies,  Der  Postzug, 
oder  die  nobeln  Passionen  (1769),  which  was  warmly  admired 
by  Frederick  the  Great,  was.  long  a  favourite  on  the  German 
stage.  In  the  lyric  drama,  however,  Austria,  or,  at  least, 
Vienna,  began,  at  an  early  date,  to  lead  the  way.  Gluck's 
Alceste,  as  has  been  already  remarked,  had  been  produced  in 
Vienna  in  1767,  and  in  1782,  Wolfgang  Gottlieb  (or  Amade) 
Mozart  (1756-91),  a  native  of  Salzburg,  ushered  in  a  new 
period  in  the  history  of  the  German  "Singspiel"  with  Die 
Entfiihrung  aus  dem  Serail.  But  the  Viennese  dramatists 
were  not  able  to  satisfy  Mozart's  requirements,  and  for  his 
two  next  operas,  Die  Hochzeit  des  Figaro  (1786)  and  Don 
Juan  (Don  Giovanni,  1787),  he  turned  to  the  Italian,  Da 
Ponte,  for  his  texts.  The  former  of  these  is  an  adaptation  of 
the  famous  comedy  by  Beaumarchais,  La  Follc  Journte,  while 
Don  Juan  is  a  more  original  version  of  the  theme  which 
Moliere  had  dramatised  in  Le  Festin  de  Pierre ;  but  Mozart's 
last  masterpiece,  Die  Zauberflote  (1791),  was  again  a  German 
"  Singspiel."  With  an  almost  childlike  naivete,  he  poured  his 
noblest  music  into  a  loosely  constructed  Viennese  "Posse," 
whose  chief  merit  in  his  eyes  was  that  it  mirrored  his  own 
enthusiasm  for  the  ideals  of  the  "Aufldarung." 

Before  the  appearance  of  Don  Carlos  in  1787,  the  "Sturm 
und  Drang  "  had  wellnigh  spent  itself.  A  strange,  anomalous 
genius  has  still,  however,  to  be  mentioned,  a  genius  in  whom 
were  mingled  the  light  grace  of  Wieland  and  the  stormy 
intoxication  of  the  "  Geniezeit " ;  this  was  the  Thuringian, 
Johann  Jakob  Heinse  (I749-I803),1  who,  in  1787,  after  three 
years'  residence  in  Rome,  published  his  most  popular  novel, 
Ardinghello,  oder  die  gluckseligen  Inseln.  The  hero  of  this 
romance  is  the  typical  heaven-stormer  of  the  age ;  Ardinghello 
is  an  artist  and  a  dreamer,  who  ultimately  founds  on  Grecian 

1  Heinse's  Sammtliche  Werke,  ed.  H.  Laube,  10  vols.,  Leipzig,  1838  ;  a  new 
edition  by  C.  Schuddekopf  has  begun  to  appear,  Berlin,  1901.  Cp.  F. 
Bobertag,  Erzahlende  Prosa  der  klassischen  Periode,  i  (D.N.L.,  136,  i 
[1886]),  52  ff. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  345 

isles  a  realm  as  free  as  the  "  Thelema "  of  Rabelais.  The 
plot  of  Ardinghello  is  in  its  way  as  extravagant  as  the  early 
dramas  of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang,"  and  the  love-adventures 
are  described  in  a  tone  of  southern  sensualism,  but  the  book 
has  a  particular  interest  in  so  far  as  it  throws  its  shadow  on 
the  succeeding  literary  period;  Ardinghello  is  a  forerunner, 
although  not,  of  course,  in  the  same  degree  as  Wilhelm 
Meistcr,  of  the  art-novels  of  the  Romanticists.  In  Heinse's 
second  novel,  Hildegard  von  Hohenthal  (1795),  tne  onty 
other  of  his  books  which  had  much  success,  music  takes 
the  place  which  painting  occupied  in  Ardinghello,  As  musical 
criticism,  especially  in  its  fine  estimate  of  Gluck,  Hildegard 
von  Hohenthal  has  a  certain  value;  as  literature,  it  is  dis- 
figured, even  more  than  its  predecessor,  by  lack  of  restraint. 

The  representative  novelist  of  the  close  of  the  "  Sturm  und 
Drang "  was  Maximilian  Klinger,1  who  has  already  been  dis-  M.  Klin- 
cussed  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  literary  revolution.  The  |fr>s  , 
work  of  his  second  period,  free  as  it  is  from  the  unbalanced  period, 
turbulence  of  his  early  life,  shows  an  almost  classic  dignity. 
Two  dramas  in  prose,  Medea  in  Korinth  and  Medea  auf 
dem  Kaukasos  (1791),  which  belong  to  these  years,  deserve 
a  place  among  the  best  modern  plays  on  Greek  subjects; 
but  his  most  solid  and  lasting  achievement  is  the  cycle 
of  nine  novels  which  he  sketched  out  in  1790.  It  was 
his  intention  to  make  these  novels  a  receptacle  for  all 
he  himself  had  ever  thought  or  experienced,  for  his  own 
philosophy  of  life.  The  cycle  opens  with  Fausts  Leben, 
Thaten  und  Hollenfahrt  (1791),  which  was  followed  by  the 
Geschichte  Giafars  des  Barmeciden  (1792)  and  the  Geschichte 
Raphaels  de  Aquillas  (1793).  The  struggle  of  the  heroes  of 
the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  against  an  untoward  fate  is  here 
fought  out  anew,  but  the  tragedy  is  no  longer  purely  personal ; 
it  has,  as  it  were,  become  typical  of  the  history  of  the  race 
and  stands  against  a  background  of  philosophical  pessimism. 
Reisen  vor  der  Siindflttth  (1795)  and  Sahir  (i  798)  are  of  the 
nature  of  political  satires,  while  in  Der  Faust  der  Morgenldnder 
(1797)  the  conflict  between  the  ideal  and  the  real,  which  is 
to  be  found  in  all  Klinger's  work,  is  treated  in  a  more  con- 
ciliatory spirit  than  in  the  opening  novel.  The  last  three 

1  M.   Rieger,  Klinger  in  seiner  Reife,  Darmstadt,   1896.     Cp.  A.  Sauer, 
Stiirmervnd  Drdnger,  i  (D.N.L.,  79  [1883]),  where  Fausts  Leben  is  reprinted. 


346  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

works  of  the  series,  the  Geschichte  eines  Teutschen  der  neusten 
Zeit  (1798),  Der  Weltmann  und  der  Dichter  (1798),  and  the 
collection  of  aphorisms  entitled  Betrachtungen  und  Gedanken 
iiber  verschiedene  Gegenstiinde  der  Welt  und  der  Litteratur 
(1803-1805),  are  also  the  ripest;  they  are  on  themes  taken 
from  Klinger's  own  time,  and  in  them  he  approaches  as  near 
as  any  of  the  classical  writers  to  a  harmonious  solution  of  the 
problems  which  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  had  awakened  in  the 
German  mind. 

Less  ambitious  than  the  "art-novels"  of  Heinse  or  Klinger's 
philosophical  romances,  Anton  Reiser,  ein psyehologischer  Roman 
(i785),1by  Karl  Philipp  Moritz  (1757-93),  demands  special 
attention  in  a  history  of  German  fiction  at  the  close  of  the 
"Sturm  und  Drang."  This  novel  stands  in  the  direct  line 
between  Agathon  and  Wilhelm  Meister.  It  is  an  unpre- 
tentious story,  mainly  autobiographical,  like  Jung-Stilling's 
Jugend ;  yet  before  Wilhelm  Meister,  no  book  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  painted  with  such  convincing  truth  a  young 
man's  initiation  into  the  trials  of  life.  The  theory  of  the 
modern  psychological  novel  is  implied  in  the  few  words  of 
preface  with  which  the  book  opens : — 

"  Wer  den  Lauf  der  menschlichen  Dinge  kennt,  und  weiss,  wie 
dasjenige  oft  im  Fortgange  des  Lebens  sehr  wichtig  werden  kann, 
was  anfanglich  klein  und  unbedeutend  schien,  der  wird  sich  an  die 
anscheinende  Geringfiigigkeit  mancher  Umstande,  die  hier  erzahlt 
werden,  nicht  stossen.  Auch  wird  man  in  einem  Buche,  welches 
vorziiglich  die  innere  Geschichte  des  Menschen  schildern  soil,  keine 
grosse  Mannigfaltigkeit  der  Charaktere  erwarten  :  denn  es  soil  die 
vorstellende  Kraft  nicht  vertheilen,  sondern  sie  zusammendrangen, 
und  den  Blick  der  Seele  in  sich  selber  scharfen." 

Anton  Reiser  is  born  in  extreme  poverty,  and,  beginning  life 
as  a  hatmaker's  apprentice  in  Brunswick,  has  to  fight  his 
way  through  all  manner  of  hardships ;  the  dream  of  his  life 
is  to  win  a  name  for  himself  on  the  stage,  but,  once  suc- 
cess is  within  sight,  he  is  bitterly  disappointed  with  what 
he  had  regarded  as  the  ideal  world  of  Shakespeare  and 
Goethe.  This  is  practically  the  thread  of  narrative  on 
which  the  novel  hangs,  but  the  importance  of  the  book 
lies,  not  in  its  story,  but  in  its  keen  observation  and  fine 

1  Ed.  L.  Geiger,  Litter aturdenkm. ,  23,  Heiibronn,  1886.  Cp.  F.  Bobertag, 
l.c.,  165  ff. 


CHAP.  IX.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  347 

insight.  The  restless  spirit  of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  is 
still  present,  but  now  and  again  we  are  reminded  of  that 
new  world  which  Goethe's  broad  humanitarianism  had 
revealed  to  his  contemporaries.  Moritz,  who  belonged  to 
Goethe's  circle  of  friends  in  Rome,  wrote  also  on  aesthetic 
subjects,  and  his  Reisen  eines  Deutschen  in  England  im  Jahr 
1782  (1783)  and  Reisen  eines  Deutschen  in  Italien  in  den 
Jahren  1786  bis  1788  (1792-93)  are  valuable  documents  of 
the  time. 

Johann  Georg  Forster  (1754-94),  another  writer  who  stood  j.  G. 
on  the  confines  of  the  "Geniezeit,"  lived  an  extraordinarily  Forster> 

*  754  "94- 

adventurous  life.  Brought  up  in  England,  he  accompanied 
his  father  on  Cook's  second  voyage  round  the  world  (1772- 
75),  and  on  his  return  wrote  an  account  of  it  in  English  (A 
Voyage  towards  the  South  Pole  and  Round  the  World,  1777). 
Returned  to  Germany,  he  was  appointed  to  a  professorship 
in  Kassel,  which  in  1784  he  exchanged  for  a  similar  chair 
in  the  University  of  Wilna  in  Poland ;  but  life  in  Wilna  soon 
became  unendurable  to  him,  and  he  was  glad  to  return  to 
Germany  in  1787.  A  year  later  he  obtained  a  librarianship 
in  Mainz.  A  fiery  enthusiast  for  freedom,  a  "Weltbiirger" 
like  Marquis  Posa,  Forster  greeted  the  French  Revolution 
with  enthusiasm ;  but  the  horrors  of  the  actual  rising  as  he 
saw  them  in  Mainz  convinced  him  that  it  was  not  the 
hoped-for  panacea  for  all  social  ills.  He  died  in  Paris  in 
1794.  His  masterpiece  is  the  Ansichten  vom  Niederrhein,  Ansichte 
von  Brabant,  Flandern,  Holland,  England  und  JFrankreich  im 
April,  Mai,  Junius  1790  (I79I),1  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
books  of  travel  that  has  ever  been  written.  Nature  and 
people,  politics  and  art,  nothing  escapes  Forster's  wide  glance, 
and  for  everything  that  comes  under  his  notice  he  has  the 
same  unflagging  interest;  the  art  of  Iffland  or  a  picture  by 
Rubens  is  described  with  no  less  loving  care  than  the 
geological  structure  of  the  Rhine  valley;  and,  above  all,  the 
book  is  written  in  so  vivid  and  picturesque  a  style  that  it  has 
remained  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  German  prose. 

1  Ed.  W.  Buchner  in  the  BibL  der  deutschen  Nationallitt,,  13,  14,  Leipzig, 
1868. 


CHAPTER    X. 

GOETHE'S  FIRST  TWENTY  YEARS  IN  WEIMAR. 

THE  Goethe  who  has  been  hitherto  considered,  was  simul- 
taneously a  child  of  his  age  and  its  leader ;  in  Leipzig,  Strass- 
burg  and  Frankfort,  he  had  belonged  wholly  to  the  literary 
movement  in  the  midst  of  which  he  was  placed ;  and  during 
his  last  years  in  Frankfort,  he  was  the  acknowledged  head  of 
the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  From  his  twenty-seventh  year 
onwards,  Goethe  was  by  no  means  so  intimately  bound  up 
with  the  epoch ;  for  the  first  fifteen  years  at  least  of  his  life 
in  Weimar,  he  held  entirely  aloof  from  literary  schools  and 
movements.  His  personal  development  had  been  so  rapid 
as  to  outstrip  his  time,  and,  after  his  return  from  Italy,  his 
attitude  to  literature  was  even  antagonistic.  We  have  now 
to  turn  to  the  history  of  Goethe's  life  and  work  between  his 
arrival  in  Weimar  in  the  end  of  1775,  and  the  beginning  of 
his  friendship  with  Schiller  in  1794. 

As  far  as  poety  was  concerned,  the  first  years  which 
Goethe  spent  in  Weimar  present  a  marked  contrast  to  the 
period  which  preceded  them  :  his  best  energies  were  for  a 
time  directed  to  other  channels.  Duke  Karl  August,  with 
a  clearness  of  judgment  remarkable  in  so  young  a  man — it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  while  Goethe  was  six-and-twenty 
when  he  went  to  Weimar,  his  sovereign  was  only  a  youth  of 
eighteen — saw  that  the  poet  whom  he  had  called  to  his  Court 
was  more  than  a  man  of  letters ;  and  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion of  his  elders,  he  gave  him  one  responsible  position 
after  another  in  the  government  of  the  Duchy.  And  the 
first  month  or  two  of  unsettled  life  over,  Goethe  showed 
that  the  Duke's  confidence  in  him  was  not  misplaced.  He 
threw  himself  zealously  into  his  new  duties,  and  poetry  was 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  349 

neglected.  For  the  development  of  Goethe's  mind  these 
years  were  of  undeniable  value ;  in  fulfilling  the  daily  duties 
of  his  official  position,  he  passed  through  a  school  of  char- 
acter, a  process  of  humanitarian  education  which  infinitely 
widened  his  horizon.  He  learned  to  know  men,  not  only 
through  the  coloured  glass  of  literature,  but  face  to  face 
in  everyday  life.  His  official  interest  in  forestry,  in  agri- 
culture, in  the  mines  at  Ilmenau,  first  drew  his  attention  to 
botany  and  mineralogy,  and  many  of  the  lessons  that  were 
subsequently  embodied  in  Wilhelm  Meister^  such  as  the 
necessity  of  self-control  and  self-abnegation  in  the  service  of 
one's  fellow-men,  Goethe  learned  as  a  servant  of  the  Weimar 
State.  Indeed,  it  might  almost  be  said  that  the  distance 
which  from  this  time  on  separated  Goethe  from  his  con- 
temporaries was  mainly  due  to  the  balance  of  character  which 
political  responsibility  gave  him.  In  his  immediate  circle — 
Wieland  stood  somewhat  apart — literature  was  but  indiffer- 
ently represented,  and  chiefly  in  a  spirit  of  dilettantism.  The 
literary  reputation  of  the  most  talented  member,  Major  K. 
L.  von  Knebel  (1744-1834),  who  had  introduced  Goethe  to 
the  Duke  in  1774,  rested  exclusively  on  his  translations  of 
Propertius  and  Lucretius.  During  the  early  years  in  Weimar, 
the  guiding  star  of  Goethe's  life  was  Charlotte  von  Stein  Charlotte 
(1742-1827),  who,  although  seven  years  his  senior  and  the  von  Stein. 
mother  of  several  children,  inspired  him  with  a  passion  which 
lasted  until  his  journey  to  Italy  in  1786-88.  Of  all  the 
women  whom  he  loved,  Frau  von  Stein  was  intellectually 
the  worthiest  of  him ;  his  love  for  her  was  the  most  spiritual 
and  satisfying  he  ever  experienced.  At  the  same  time,  there 
was  nothing  in  his  relations  with  her  of  that  naive  irresponsi- 
bility with  which  he  had  loved  Gretchen,  Friederike,  or  even 
Lili ;  Frau  von  Stein  seems  always  to  have  retained  something 
of  the  reserve  of  the  Court  lady.  Goethe's  correspondence 
with  her,1  of  which  only  his  share  has  been  preserved,  is  more 
than  a  collection  of  love-letters ;  it  also  reflects  an  intellectual 
friendship  similar  to  that  which,  in  the  next  epoch  of  his  life, 
appears  in  his  correspondence  with  Schiller. 

Frau  von  Stein  is  less  directly  mirrored  in  Goethe's  poetry 
than  Friederike  or  Lotte ;  but  there  was  a  reason  for  this. 

1  Ed.  J.  Wahle,  a  vols.,  Frankfort,  1899,  1900 ;  also  in  the  Weimar  edition, 
Abt.  4,  3-9  (1888-91). 


350  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Goethe  had  now  outgrown  the  purely  subjective  stage  of 
his  work ;  his  conception  of  poetic  creation  no  longer 
admitted  of  a  direct  reproduction  of  his  impressions  and 
experiences  in  his  writings ;  the  immediate  subjectivity  of 
Werther,  Gotz,  Clavigo  gave  place  to  the  more  objective 
Lyrics  of  spirit  of  Iphigenie  and  Tasso,  and  thus,  although  the  lyrics  of 
this  period,  tnjs  perjocj  reveal  the  poet's  happiness  in  his  new  passion, 
they  are  only  exceptionally  direct  love-songs.  In  the  whole 
range  of  Goethe's  poetry,  the  lyrics  he  wrote  at  this  time  have 
never  been  surpassed.  As  an  example,  the  poem  An  den 
Mond  may  be  cited,  the  opening  verses  of  which  are  : — 

"  Fullest  wieder  Busch  und  Thai 
Still  mit  Nebelglanz, 
Losest  endlich  auch  einmal 
Meine  Seele  ganz ; 

Breitest  iiber  mein  Gefild 
Lindernd  deinen  Blick, 
Wie  des  Freundes  Auge  mild 
tiber  mein  Geschick."  1 

The  dominant  note  which  runs  through  such  poetry  is  a 
passionate  love  for  nature;  it  is  characteristic  also  of  the 
distichs  which  in  the  collected  poems  bear  the  title  Antiker 
Form  sick  ndhernd,  in  Wonne  der  Wehmuth,  in  the  Wandrers 
Nachtlied,  and  that  beautiful  expression  of  man's  oneness 
with  nature  : — 

"  Uber  alien  Gipfeln 
1st  Ruh, 

In  alien  Wipfeln 
Spiirest  du 
Kaum  einen  Hauch ; 
Die  Vogelein  schweigen  im  Walde. 
Warte  nur,  balde 
Ruhest  du  auch. "  2 

Although  nature -poetry  has  played  so  large  a  part  in  the 
European  literature  of  the  past  hundred  and  fifty  years,  no 
poet  ever  penetrated  as  deeply  into  the  soul  of  nature  as 
Goethe  during  his  early  years  in  Weimar ;  the  contrast  be- 
tween Werther  or  Gotz  and  the  calm  beauty  of  poems  like 

1  Werke,   i,  100.     Cp.  R.  Kogel,   Goethes  lyrische  Dichtungen  der  erslen 
Weimaruchtn  Jahre,  Basle,  1896. 

2  Werke,  i,  98. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  351 

Ilmenau  and  the  Zueigmmg  is  so  great  that  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  they  are  the  work  of  a  single  writer.  The  second  of 
these  opens  the  Gedichte  in  Goethe's  collected  writings,  but  it 
was  originally  intended  as  the  beginning  of  a  religious  epic, 
Die  Geheimnisse,  which,  begun  in  1784,  was  to  cover  no  less 
wide  a  field  than  the  Ewige  Jude  of  the  poet's  earlier  days. 

In  1777,  Goethe  had  made  the  Harzreisc  im  Winter  which 
fills  a  volume  of  his  works,  and,  in  i"779j  he  accompanied  the  tm  Winter, 
Duke  of  Weimar  on  a  second  Swiss  journey,  the  account  of 
which  (Briefe  aus  der  Scfnveiz)  was  first  published  in  Schiller's 
Horen  in  1796.  To  the  same  time  belong  also  the  Singspiel 
Jery  und  Bdtely  (1780),  and  the  fine  Gesang  der  Geister 
iiber  dem  Wasser.  The  one-act  drama,  Die  Geschivister,  written  Die  Ge- 
in  October,  1776,  a  delicate  study  of  sisterly  affection  which 
gives  place  to  a  warmer  love,  reads  more  like  an  echo 
of  the  years  in  Frankfort  than  an  immediate  "confession," 
but  into  it  Goethe  undoubtedly  also  infused  something  of  his 
own  relations  to  Frau  von  Stein.  More  important  works, 
however,  were  in  the  background.  Iphigenie  auf  Tauris,  as 
we  now  know  it,  was  not  completed  until  1787,  when  Goethe 
was  in  Rome,  but  eight  years  before,  the  first  prose  version 
of  the  drama  was  performed  by  amateurs  in  Weimar,  Goethe 
himself  playing  the  role  of  Orest.  In  the  same  way  Tasso, 
too,  as  far  as  plan  and  conception  are  concerned,  dates  from 
the  period  which  preceded  the  poet's  visit  to  Italy.  And 
to  Tasso  must  be  added  the  beginnings  of  Wilhelm  Meister. 
As  early  as  1777,  Goethe  had  sketched  out  and  begun  a 
romance  of  the  theatre  which  was  to  bear  the  title  Wilhelm 
Meisters  theatralische  Sendung. 

On  the  2Qth  of  October,  1786,  Goethe  first  set  foot  in  Goethe  in 
Rome ;  the  following  spring  was  spent  in  Naples  and  Sicily ;  g£ly' *786 
and  in  the  beginning  of  June,  1787,  he  was  again  in  Rome, 
where  he  remained  until  the  2nd  of  April,  1788.  Goethe's 
"  italienische  Reise" — the  volume  of  his  works  which  bears 
this  title  was  compiled  from  letters  and  diaries  in  1816  and 
1829 — made  a  deep  incision  into  his  Weimar  life;  it  was  an 
event  of  enormous  import  for  his  intellectual  development. 
Just  as  Herder  had  brought  Goethe's  youth  to  a  focus  in 
Strassburg,  so  the  journey  to  Italy  now  seemed  to  introduce 
clearness  and  order  into  his  mind.  The  tentative  experiments 
of  his  first  ten  years  in  Weimar,  his  search  after  a  higher  ideal 


352  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

of  beauty,  that  classic  beauty  of  repose  at  which  he  had 
aimed  in  his  first  sketches  of  Iphigenie  and  Tasso  —  all 
these  strivings  first  attained  their  object  in  Italy.  In  Italy, 
Goethe's  life,  regarded  as  a  whole,  touched  its  zenith;  from 
the  height  he  here  attained,  he  was  able  to  look  back  upon 
the  turbulent  years  of  his  youth,  and  forward  into  the  new 
epoch  that  lay  before  him  like  a  promised  land.  In  Italy, 
the  mission  of  his  life  seems  all  at  once  to  have  become 
clear  to  him.  Under  the  Roman  sun,  his  ideals  of  Art, 
the  art  of  painting,  of  sculpture,  as  well  as  poetry,  ripened ; 
the  last  vestiges  of  the  one-sided  Germanic  enthusiasm  which 
had  burst  into  dithyrambs  before  the  Strassburg  Minster  or 
a  Shakespearian  tragedy,  disappeared,  and  gave  place  to  a 
more  catholic  conception  of  greatness  in  art — a  conception 
which  arose  essentially  from  Winckelmann's  revelation  of  the 
nature  of  antique  beauty.  The  art-theories  of  Goethe's  mature 
years — and  this  is  his  true  significance  for  the  history  of  art 
— fulfil  the  promise  of  Winckelmann's  work  :  in  Goethe,  the 
eighteenth  century's  conception  of  beauty,  which  combined 
the  humane  ideals  of  the  "  Auf  klarung  "  with  a  classic  repose, 
reaches  its  fullest  development. 

Sckriften,  But  the  poet's  time  in  Italy  was  not  entirely  taken  up  in 
1787-9°-  studying  art.  In  1787,  he  had  begun  to  publish  the  first 
collected  edition  of  his  writings  (Goethes  Schriften,  8  vols., 
1787-90),  and  several  works  had  to  be  revised  and  com- 
pleted in  order  that  they  might  take  their  place  in  these 
volumes.  The  smaller  "  Singspiele  "  were  remodelled,  and  a 
new  one,  Scherz,  List  und  Racke,  was  added ;  Iphigenie  was 
remoulded,  Tasso  all  but  finished.  Plans  of  new  classical 
dramas,  an  Iphigenie  auf  Delphos  and  a  Nausicaa,  were 
sketched  out,  but  remained  fragments.  A  few  at  least  of 
the  magnificent  Romischcn  Elegien  were  actually  written  in 
Rome,  but  the  majority  belong  to  the  following  years  at 
home.  Goethe's  thoughts  were  not,  however,  exclusively 
restricted  to  classic  grooves ;  he  could  at  times  recall  enough 
of  the  "  Gothic  "  spirit  to  complete  Egmont,  and,  strangest 
contrast  of  all,  to  write  the  scene  in  the  "  Hexenkiiche "  for 
Faust.  In  1790,  this  drama  was  first  published  under  the 
title  Faust,  ein  Fragment.1 

In   no   work    of   Goethe's    is   the  poetic  inspiration   more 
1  A  convenient  reprint  in  Litter aturdenkm. ,  5,  Heilbronn,  1882. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  353 

convincing  than  in  Iphigenie  auf  Tauris  (1787).     No  poem,   ipkigenie 
not  even  Fausty  was  so  often  written  and  rewritten ;  as  we  a"fu  . 
possess  it  in  its  final  form — the  form  which  it  received  in   1787. 
Italy — it  is  the  most  artistically  perfect,  the  most  spiritual, 
of  all  the  poet's  writings.     In  none,  certainly,  has  the  dross 
of  subjectivity — and  on  the  heights  where  Iphigenie  stands, 
one  may  speak  even  of  Goethe's  subjectivity  as  dross — been 
so  completely  eliminated,  or  at  least  transmuted  into  poetry. 
The  poet's  relations  with   Frau  von  Stein,  it   is  true,   give 
the  drama  its  psychological  background,  but  they  have  been 
completely  transformed ;  in  other  words,  Iphigenie  is  the  least 
personal  of  Goethe's  more  important  works. 

"  Heraus  in  cure  Schatten,  rege  Wipfel 
Des  alten,  heil'gen,  dichtbelaubten  Haines, 
Wie  in  der  Gdttinn  stilles  Heiligthum, 
Tret'  ich  noch  jetzt  mit  schauderndem  Gefiihl, 
Als  wenn  ich  sie  zum  erstenmal  betrate, 
Und  es  gewohnt  sich  nicht  mein  Geist  hierher. 
So  manches  Jahr  bewahrt  mich  hier  verborgen 
Ein  hoher  Wille,  dem  ich  mich  ergebe  ; 
Doch  immer  bin  ich,  wie  im  ersten,  fremd. 
Denn  ach  mich  trennt  das  Meer  von  den  Geliebten, 
Und  an  dem  Ufer  steh'  ich  lange  Tage, 
Das  Land  der  Griechen  mit  der  Seele  suchend  ; 
Und  gegen  meine  Seufzer  bringt  die  Welle 
Nur  dumpfe  Tone  brausend  mir  heriiber. 
Weh  dem,  der  fern  von  Eltern  und  Geschwistern 
Ein  einsam  Leben  fiihrt ! " 1 

So  muses  Agamemnon's  daughter,  Iphigenie,  before  her  temple 
at  Tauris,  in  the  land  of  the  Scythians,  whither  the  goddess 
Artemis  had  borne  her  when  she  was  about  to  fall  a  victim 
to  her  father's  vow.  Before  the  drama  opens,  Iphigenie  has 
already  had  a  civilising  influence  upon  the  barbarians ;  human 
sacrifices  are  no  longer  offered  to  propitiate  the  deities.  The 
Scythian  king,  Thoas,  demands  her  hand  in  marriage ;  and  he 
persists  in  his  demand,  even  when  she  reveals  to  him  that  she 
is  of  the  race  so  hated  by  the  gods,  the  race  of  Tantalus.  In 
the  meantime,  however,  two  strangers  have  arrived  at  Tauris ; 
the  disappointed  king  sends  them  to  her  with  the  command 
that  the  old  rites  are  to  be  renewed  and  human  sacrifices 
are  not  to  be  withheld  from  the  goddess.  These  strangers, 
who,  unrecognised  by  Iphigenie,  are  her  brother  Orestes  and 
his  friend  Pylades,  are  to  be  the  first  victims.  Pylades  tells 

1  Werke,  10,  3. 
Z 


354  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

her  of  the  great  events  before  Troy  and  the  tragic  fate  of 
her  own  race ;  how  Orestes,  stained  with  the  blood  of  his 
mother,  seeks,  in  accordance  with  Apollo's  command,  "  the 
temple  of  his  sister,"  from  which  he  must  obtain  the  statue 
of  the  goddess,  if  he  is  to  escape  the  Furies  who  are  in 
pursuit  of  him.  But  Orestes,  impatient  of  disguise,  reveals 
himself  to  Iphigenie — 

"  Ich  bin  Orest !  und  dieses  schuld'ge  Ilaupt 
Senkt  nach  der  Grube  sich  und  sucht  den  Tod  ; 
In  jeglicher  Gestalt  sey  er  willkommen  !  " J — 

and  learns  in  turn  that  it  is  his  sister  who  stands  before  him. 
The  confession  of  his  guilt  relieves  Orestes  from  his  burden ; 
the  presence  of  his  noble  sister,  purifying  and  sanctifying,  frees 
him  from  the  phantasms  of  his  disordered  brain  : — 

"  Es  16'set  sich  der  Fluch,  mir  sagt's  das  Herz. 
.  Die  Eumeniden  ziehn,  ich  hore  sie, 
Zum  Tartarus  und  schlagen  hinter  sich 
Die  ehrnen  Thore  fernabdonnernd  zu. 
Die  Erde  dampft  erquickenden  Geruch 
Und  ladet  mich  auf  ihren  Flachen  ein, 
Nach  Lebensfreud'  und  grosser  That  zu  jagen."  2 

With  this  scene  the  action  reaches  its  culminating  point. 
The  three  friends  have  now  to  make  good  their  escape  with 
the  image  of  the  goddess.  But  the  deceit  which  the  heroine 
of  Euripides'  tragedy  does  not  scorn  to  employ  is  impossible 
to  Goethe's  high-souled,  modern  Iphigenie.  Thoas  has  been 
kind  to  her ;  she  confesses  all  to  him,  and  the  openness  of 
her  words  wins  him  for  her  friend.  Thus,  the  dramatic  knot 
which  the  Greek  dramatist  cut  forcibly  by  introducing  Artemis 
herself,  is  here  untied  by  the  moral  force  of  the  heroine's 
character.  With  the  Scythian  king's  friendly  "  Lebt  wohl !  " 
to  the  departing  Greeks,  the  drama  closes. 

Calmly  beautiful  as  Iphigenie  aitf  Tauris  is,  the  charm 
which  appeals  to  us  in  it  is  not  that  of  antique  art.  Goethe's 
play  is  not  a  Greek  tragedy ;  its  "  stille  Grosse "  is  not  the 
"  stille  Grosse  "  which  Winckelmann  discovered  in  the  sculp- 
ture of  antiquity,  but  that  of  the  century  of  humanitarian 
ideals.  Goethe  transferred  the  antique  saga  as  he  found  it 
in  Euripides,  to  his  own  age;  he  removed  what  was  crass, 

1  Werke,  10,  47.  2  Ibid.,  10,  58. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  355 

incredible,  and  unmodern  from  it — the  deception  and  cunning 
in  which  the  Greek  mind  saw  no  guile,  the  crude  solution  of 
the  tragic  complications  by  the  aid  of  supernatural  inter- 
vention—  and  he  created  characters  which,  to  use  an  ex- 
pression which  he  applied  to  them  fifteen  years  afterwards, 
are  "verteufelt  human." 

Iphigenie  was  followed  by  Torquato  Tasso  (1790),  the  Torquato 
origin  of  which  may  also  be  traced  back  to  the  earlier  period  Ta3so> 
of  Goethe's  life  in  Weimar.  Tasso  is  clearly  a  more  sub- 
jective drama  than  Iphigenie:  the  scene  of  the  action,  the 
Court  of  Duke  Alfonso  II.  of  Ferrara,  has  many  points  of 
similarity  to  that  of  Weimar,  and  incidents  in  Goethe's  own 
relations  with  the  Duke  of  Weimar,  with  the  Duchess  and 
Frau  von  Stein,  are  reflected  in  it.  Tasso  is  the  tragedy  of  a 
sensitive  poet  whose  failing  is  his  lack  of  self-control ;  hence  it 
is  essentially  a  psychological  drama  with  little  plot  or  outward 
conflict.  It  opens  at  the  moment  when  Tasso,  having  finished 
his  epic,  La  Gerusalemme  liberata,  is  crowned  with  a  laurel 
wreath  by  the  Duke's  sister,  Leonore  von  Este.  To  Antonio 
Montecatino,  the  Duke's  Secretary  of  State,  who  has  just 
returned  from  Rome,  this  honour  appears  as  an  undeserved 
flattery :  he  accuses  Tasso  of  courting  a  comparison  with 
Virgil  and  Ariosto.  Notwithstanding  the  Princess's  attempts 
to  bring  about  a  reconciliation,  the  breach  between  the  poet 
and  the  man  of  the  world  grows  wider ;  and  ultimately  Tasso 
so  far  forgets  himself  as  to  draw  his  sword  on  Antonio.  The 
Duke  places  him  under  arrest,  but  subsequently  bids  Antonio 
restore  Tasso  sword  and  freedom,  and  seek  reconciliation 
with  the  offended  poet.  As  proof  of  his  sincerity,  Tasso  asks 
Antonio  to  obtain  the  Duke's  permission  for  him  to  leave 
Ferrara,  and  Antonio  reluctantly  consents.  Unhappy  at  the 
prospect  of  his  separation  from  the  Court,  Tasso  confesses 
his  love  to  the  Princess  Leonore,  who  naturally  rejects  his 
presumptuous  suit.  Forsaken  on  every  side,  the  poet  turns  to 
Antonio,  to  find  in  this  man  of  common-sense,  his  best  friend. 
The  poetic  charm  of  Tasso  is  even  more  delicate  than  that  of 
Iphigenie,  but  as  a  play  it  is  inferior  to  the  latter.  The  char- 
acter of  Antonio — the  most  important  for  the  comprehension 
of  the  action — is  too  shadowy  and  complicated  to  be  convinc- 
ing ;  at  times  it  seems  as  if  there  were  really  two  Antonios, 
one  at  the  beginning  of  the  drama  and  another  at  its  close. 


356  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

The  whole  work,  indeed,  gives  the  impression  of  falling 
asunder  into  two  parts.  But  despite  such  blemishes,  Tasso 
remains  one  of  the  most  subtle  of  Goethe's  creations ;  it 
is,  above  all,  a  drama  for  poets,  the  fullest  confession  of 
a  poet's  life — of  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  temptations  and 
disappointments,  to  which  a  delicately  strung  man  of  genius 
is  exposed.  The  whole  tragedy  of  Tasso's  soul  is  concen- 
trated in  his  last  words  to  Antonio : — 

"  Hilft  denn  kein  Beyspiel  der  Geschichte  mehr? 
Stellt  sich  kein  edler  Mann  mir  vor  die  Augen, 
Der  mehr  gelitten,  als  ich  jemals  litt ; 
Damit  ich  mich  mit  ihm  vergleichend  fasse  ? 
Nein,  alles  ist  dahin  ! — Nur  Eines  bleibt : 
Die  Thrane  hat  uns  die  Natur  verliehen, 
Den  Schrey  des  Schmerzens,  wenn  der  Mann  zuletzt 
Es  nicht  mehr  tragt — Und  mir  noch  iiber  alles — 
Sie  Hess  im  Schmerz  mir  Melodic  und  Rede, 
Die  tiefste  Flille  meiner  Noth  zu  klagen  : 
Und  wenn  der  Mensch  in  seiner  Qual  verstummt, 
Gab  mir  ein  Gott,  zu  sagen  wie  ich  leide.  .  .  . 

Zerbrochen  ist  das  Steuer,  und  es  kracht 

Das  Schiff  an  alien  Seiten.     Berstend  reisst 

Der  Boden  unter  meinen  FUssen  auf ! 

Ich  fasse  dich  mit  beyden  Armen  an  ! 

So  klammert  sich  der  Schiffer  endlich  noch 

Am  Felsen  fest,  an  dem  er  scheitern  sollte."1 

When,  in  June  1788,  Goethe  returned  to  Weimar,  it  was 
small  wonder  that  he  felt  little  in  harmony  with  his  sur- 
roundings. If  he  had  outgrown  his  age  before  he  went 
to  Italy,  how  much  more  was  this  the  case  after  his  return? 
The  turbulence  of  the  "Geniezeit"  still  agitated  the  surface 
of  German  literature,  and  filled  Goethe  with  repugnance  for 
the  writings  of  his  countrymen.  Even  his  old  friends,  among 
them  Frau  von  Stein,  whom  he  had  once  loved  so  passionately, 
appeared  like  strangers  to  him  in  the  cold,  unsympathetic 
light  of  the  northern  sky.  The  period  immediately  after  his 
return  from  Italy  was  the  least  productive  of  the  poet's  life, 
and  until  the  stimulus  of  Schiller's  friendship  began  to  act  on 
him  in  1794,  he  was  to  a  large  extent  estranged  from  litera- 
ture. To  the  years  between  1788  and  1794  belong  the 
Venetianischen  Epigramme  (1796),  written  in  1790  on  a  visit 
to  Venice,  and  the  admirable  translation  of  the  Low  German 

1  Werke,  10,  243  f. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  357 

Beast   Epic,  Reineke  Fuchs,  which   appeared  in   1794.     The  Reineke 
Romischen  Elegien  (1795),  with  their  glow  of  southern  passion  f*^' 
and  their  statuesque  Italian  beauty,  were  mainly  inspired  by  Romiscke 
a   new  love   of  Goethe's,    Christiane  Vulpius,   who,   to   the  £le&en< 
scandal  of  Weimar  society,  lived  with  the  poet  for  eighteen 
years  as  faithful  helpmate  before,  in  1806,  he  made  her  his 
wife.     She  is  the  "  forest  flower  "  in  the  poem  Gefunden : — 

"  Ich  grub's  mit  alien 
Den  Wiirzlein  aus, 
Zum  Garten  trug  ich's 
Am  hiibschen  Haus. 

Und  pflanzt'es  wieder 
Am  stillen  Ort ; 
Nun  zweigt  es  immer 
Und  bliihtsofort."1 

In  1792,  Goethe  was  brought  rudely  into  touch  with  the 
actualities  of  life.  At  the  Duke's  command,  he  accompanied 
him  on  that  disastrous  campaign  against  the  French,  by  means 
of  which  the  German  princes  hoped  to  stem  the  flood  of 
revolution.  Goethe's  account  of  the  campaign — Campagne 
in  Frankreich,  1792 — was  not  published  until  1822,  when  it 
formed  part  of  his  autobiography. 

Before  the  decisive  moment  arrived  when  Goethe  recog- 
nised in  Schiller  a  friend  who  could  stimulate  his  interest  in 
poetry,   he  had  published    in   the   Neue    Schriften   (7    vols., 
1792-1800)  the  beginning  of  his  romance,  Wilhelm  Meisters    Wilhelm 
Lehrjahrc.      Wilhelm  Meister,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  ^^ej^,.e 
been  planned  in    1777,  as  a  novel  of  theatrical  life,  occu-  1795-96. 
pies  a  central  position  in   the  development  of  the  German 
novel.     On  the  one  hand,  it  is  the  culmination  of  the  novel 
of  the  eighteenth  century  which  commenced  with  imitations  of 
Richardson  ;  on  the  other,  the  basis  for  the  modern  novel  of 
the  Romantic  School,  and  the  direct  forerunner  of  the  auto- 
biographical novels  of  modern  German  literature.     It  is  thus, 
in  a  higher  degree  than  any  other  work  of  fiction,  the  typical 
German  novel. 

Wilhelm  Meisters  Lehrjahre  is  not  only  very  loosely  con- 
structed, but  also  its  hero  is  not  strong  enough  to  dominate 
and  set  his  mark  upon  the  whole.  The  novel  is  held 

1  Werbe,  i,  25. 


358  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

together  neither  by  .its  plot  nor  its  characters  but  by  an  ethical 
idea.  In  January,  1825,  Goethe  said  to  Eckermann  : — 

"  Es  gehort  dieses  Werk  iibrigens  zu  den  incalculabelsten  Pro- 
ductionen,  wozu  mir  fast  selbst  der  Schliissel  fehlt.  Man  sucht 
einen  Mittelpunkt,  und  das  ist  schwer  und  nicht  einmal  gut.  Ich 
sollte  meinen,  ein  reiches  mannigfaltiges  Leben,  das  unsern  Augen 
voriibergeht,  ware  auch  an  sich  etwas  ohne  ausgesprochene  Tendenz, 
die  doch  bloss  fur  den  Begriff  ist.  Will  man  aber  dergleichen 
durchaus,  so  halte  man  sich  an  die  Worte  Friedrichs,  die  er  am 
Ende  an  unsern  Helden  richtet,  indem  er  sagt :  '  Du  kommst  mir 
vor  wie  Saul,  der  Sohn  Kis,  der  ausging,  seines  Vaters  Eselinnen 
zu  suchen  und  ein  Konigreich  fand.'  Hieran  halte  man  sich. 
Denn  im  Grunde  scheint  doch  das  Ganze  nichts  anderes  sagen 
zu  wollen,  als  dass  der  Mensch  trotz  aller  Dummheiten  und  Ver- 
wirrungen,  von  einer  hohern  Hand  geleitet,  doch  zum  gliicklichen 
Ziele  gelange."  l 

This  idea  provides  the  thread  on  which  the  varicoloured 
pictures  of  the  romance  are  strung;  it  is  the  history  of  a 
young  man's  apprenticeship  to  life.  Wilhelm  Meister  is 
the  son  of  a  well-to-do  merchant.  Brought  up  as  Goethe 
himself  had  been,  his  imagination  nourished  with  poetry, 
Wilhelm  prefers  the  theatre  to  the  counting-house.  When 
the  novel  opens,  we  find  him  in  the  toils  of  a  pretty 
actress,  Marianne,  who  incorporates  his  dreams  of  the  theatre. 
From  an  actor,  Melina,  he  learns,  however,  the  dark  side  of 
theatrical  life,  and  soon  after,  discovering  that  Marianne  has 
been  unfaithful  to  him,  resolves  to  follow  the  advice  of  his 
practically  minded  friend,  Werner,  and  to  make  the  best  of 
commercial  life.  He  sets  out  on  his  travels  as  an  agent  for 
his  father's  business.  Once  more,  however,  the  theatre  proves 
too  strong  for  him.  He  becomes  attached  to  a  wandering 
theatrical  company,  the  members  of  which  are  characterised 
in  a  vividly  realistic  manner.  Repelled  rather  than  attracted 
by  his  new  friends,  Wilhelm  makes  a  new  tie  for  himself  by 
purchasing  Mignon,  a  child  of  thirteen,  from  a  company  of 
travelling  acrobats  whom  he  finds  maltreating  her.  Mignon 
is  the  most  ethereal  of  all  Goethe's  characters;  she  is 
rather  an  unearthly  embodiment  of  primitive  feelings,  of  love 
for  country,  and  the  all-absorbing  sense  of  gratitude  towards 
a  benefactor,  than  a  creature  of  flesh  and  blood ;  and  with 
her  is  associated  the  mysterious  Harper,  whose  spiritual  gaze 

1  J.  P.  Eckermann,  Gesprache  mit  Goethe,  Leipzig,  1836-48,  i,  194. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  359 

is  fixed  upon  the  past,  and  whose  whole  life  was  summed 
up  in  one  brief  period  of  happiness — two  figures  who,  to- 
gether with  the  wonderful  lyrics  that  are  placed  on  their 
lips,  were  alone  sufficient  to  endear  the  novel  to  the  young 
generation  of  Romantic  writers  growing  up  at  Goethe's  feet 
In  the  meantime,  Wilhelm  himself  becomes  more  and  more 
deeply  involved  in  the  undertakings  of  the  theatrical  company 
with  which  he  is  connected.  For  a  short  time,  indeed,  he 
comes  in  contact  with  more  aristocratic  circles  in  the  castle 
of  a  Graf  who  entertains  the  company;  but  here  he  only 
meets  with  disappointments.  He  becomes  more  and  more 
confident  that  the  ideal  which  he  cannot  find  in  everyday 
life  is  to  be  found  in  the  unreal  world  of  the  theatre ;  and 
the  works  of  Shakespeare,  with  which  he  now  makes  acquaint- 
ance, strengthen  him  in  this  conviction.  The  company  of 
actors  whose  fortunes  Meister  controls,  undertakes  to  produce 
Hamlet,  and  in  the  criticism  and  reflections  which  Goethe 
makes  his  characters  express  on  this  tragedy,  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  modern  interpretation  of  Shakespeare. 
Wilhelm's  connection  with  the  theatre  at  least  teaches  him 
that  his  true  vocation  is  not  on  the  stage ;  the  company 
deteriorates,  and  he  leaves  it  to  enter  a  new  sphere  of 
life.  In  order  to  bridge  over  the  transition  from  Wilhelm 
Meister's  theatrical  experiences  to  those  in  the  castle  of 
Lothario,  where  we  next  find  him,  Goethe  has  inserted  a 
book  which  he  calls  Bekenntnisse  einer  schonen  Seele.  These  Bekennt- 
"  confessions "  of  a  noble  pietistic  lady,  who  rises  through 
renunciation  to  a  higher  life,  were  based  on  some  auto-  SeeU. 
biographic  sketches  by  a  friend  of  Goethe's  youth,  Fraulein 
Katharina  von  Klettenberg,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  had 
had  considerable  influence  on  the  poet's  religious  convictions 
after  he  returned  from  Leipzig. 

In  Lothario's  castle,  Wilhelm  enters  upon  the  last  stage  of 
his  apprenticeship.  Not  that  his  character,  which  has  hitherto 
shown  itself  deficient  in  firmness  and  decision,  is  materially 
changed;  but  his  convictions  as  to  man's  rights  and  duties 
become  settled.  His  life,  too,  is  given  a  new  aim  and  a  new 
meaning  when  he  discovers  that  Marianne  has  left  him  a  son ; 
to  this  son's  education  he  intends  from  now  on  to  devote  him- 
self. As  a  lover,  Wilhelm  has  throughout  the  book  appeared 
in  a  most  unsatisfactory  light ;  and  here,  too,  at  the  end,  he 


360  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

occupies  an  undignified  position  between  Therese,  with  whom 
he  falls  in  love  at  first  sight,  and  Natalie,  who,  as  the  "  schone 
Amazone,"  had  already  played  a  romantic  role  in  his  life. 
Natalie,  who  turns  out  to  be  Lothario's  sister,  ultimately 
becomes  Wilhelm's  wife,  while  Lothario  marries  Aurelie.  The 
closing  chapters  of  the  book  stand  in  no  very  clear  relation  to 
the  whole ;  the  lying-in-state  of  the  dead  Mignon,  in  whom 
the  Harper  discovers  his  lost  daughter,  and  the  solemn  cere- 
mony by  which  Wilhelm's  apprenticeship  is  declared  at  an  end, 
are  hardly  in  keeping  with  the  realistic  development  of  the 
earlier  parts  of  the  work.  It  is  difficult  to  agree  with  Schlegel 
in  regarding  the  two  last  books — the  whole  novel  is  divided 
into  fifteen — as  an  artistic  culmination :  on  the  other  hand, 
they  are  filled  with  Goethe's  own  philosophy  of  life,  and 
contain  the  ethical  kernel  of  the  novel.  The  words  which  the 
four  youths  sing  over  Mignon's  body — 

"  Schreitet,  schreitet  ins  Leben  zuriick !  Nehmet  den  heiligen 
Ernst  mit  hinaus  ;  denn  der  Ernst,  der  heilige,  macht  allein  das 
Leben  zur  Ewigkeit." l — 

contain  one  of  the  great  ideas  which  underlie  Wilhelm  Meister  ; 
the  gospel  it  preaches  might  be  expressed  in  the  words,  "What- 
soever thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  all  thy  might."  By 
learning  to  regard  life  and  its  duties  earnestly,  the  hero  ad- 
vances from  apprentice  to  master. 

But,  before  Goethe  had  completed  Meister,  he  had  entered 
upon  a  new  period  in  his  life,  the  eleven  years,  from  1794 
to  1805,  during  which  he  was  bound  by  the  closest  ties  of 
friendship  to  Schiller. 

i  Book  8,  chap.  8. 


CHAPTER    XL 

THE    CRITICAL    PHILOSOPHY.       GOETHE    AND    SCHILLER'S 
FRIENDSHIP. 

AFTER  Goethe  had  returned  from  Italy  and  Schiller  had 
settled  permanently  in  Jena,  German  literature  seemed,  after 
its  "  Storm  and  Stress,"  at  last  to  have  arrived  at  a  period  of 
tranquillity.  But  the  classic  beauty  of  the  one  poet  and  the 
noble  aspirations  of  the  other  might  have  made  little  impres- 
sion on  the  intellectual  life  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  had  not 
other  forces  also  been  at  work,  foremost  among  which  was 
the  philosophy  of  Kant.  This  thinker  first  shook  the  German 
people  out  of  their  easy-going  provincialism,  and  taught  them 
to  appreciate  ideals  of  life  and  thought  as  yet  undreamt-of  in 
the  philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Immanuel  Kant  (I724-I804),1  the  most  powerful  thinker 
of  the  modern  world,   was  born  and  died   in    Konigsberg;  Immanuel 
he  began  to  teach  at  the  university  there  in   1755,  and  in   Ji^jgcM. 
1770  was   made  professor.      The  first  outstanding  work  in 
which  he  embodied  the  principles  of  his  philosophy,  Kritik 
(CritiK)  der  reinen   Vernunft,  appeared  in  1781,  the  year  of  Kritik der 
Lessing's  death.     This  treatise  laid  the  foundations  of  modern  ™™n  Ver~ 
philosophy  by  destroying  that  dogmatism  on  the  basis  of  first   1781. ' 
principles,  which  had  formed  an  essential  feature  in  all  previous 
philosophic  systems.     In  the  place  of  dogmatic  metaphysics, 
Kant  set  up  a  critical  philosophy;  he  showed  that  the  task 
which  lay  nearest  to  the  philosopher  was  not  to  theorise  on 
the  unknown  and   the  unknowable,   but   to   investigate   the 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  ed.  G.  Hartenstein,  8  vols.  (in  chronological  order), 
Leipzig,  1867-69.  Cp.  K.  Fischer,  Immanuel  Kant  und  seine  Lehre,  4th  ed., 
Heidelberg,  1897,  and  F.  Paulsen,  Immanuel  Kant,  sein  Leben  und  seine 
Lehre,  Stuttgart,  1898. 


362 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Kritik  der 
praktischen 
Vemvnft) 
1788. 


Kritik  der 
Urtheils- 
kraft, 
1790. 


nature  of  the  human  mind.  The  Kritik  der  reinen  Vernunft 
established  irrefutably  the  fact  that  the  universe  is  only  known 
and  only  can  be  known  to  us  through  the  medium  of  our 
senses  —  in  other  words,  that  absolute  thinking,  thinking 
without  concrete  ideas,  is  an  impossibility.  Setting  out  from 
this  principle,  Kant  reduced  reason,  to  which  the  older 
philosophies  attributed  an  almost  creative  faculty,  to  its  true 
proportions  as  a  "regulative"  function  of  the  mind:  it  is 
that  part  of  the  mind  through  which  the  facts  of  experience 
have  to  pass  in  order  to  become  knowledge.  The  nature, 
functions,  and  laws  of  human  reason  are  the  subject  of  Kant's 
first  Kritik. 

In  1788,  his  second  important  treatise,  Kritik  der  prak- 
tischen Vernunft)  appeared :  it  may  be  described  as  an 
application  to  the  will  of  the  same  analytical  method  that 
had  been  employed  in  criticising  "  pure  "  reason.  But  in  this 
treatise  Kant  was  obliged  to  go  much  further  afield ;  many 
first  principles,  such  as  the  existence  of  God,  immortality, 
above  all,  the  freedom  of  the  will,  which  the  first  Kritik  had 
admitted  to  be  possible,  but  avoided  proving,  are  in  the  Kritik 
der  praktischen  Vernunft  taken  for  granted,  on  the  ground 
that  morality  is  inconceivable  without  them.  Thus  the 
second  Kritik^  owing  to  the  nature  of  its  subject,  does  not 
stand  on  the  unimpeachable,  logical  basis  of  the  first,  but 
it  atones  for  this  deficiency  by  the  convincing  earnestness 
with  which  the  author  lays  down  his  principles.  As  a  moral 
teacher,  Kant's  influence  on  his  nation  was  enormous ;  his 
insistence  upon  duty  for  duty's  sake,  the  religious  awe  which 
he  inspired  for  the  "  eternal  moral  law "  in  the  human 
soul  and  the  categorical  imperative  which  set  obedience  to 
that  moral  law  above  every  other  consideration,  acted  upon 
the  German  people  like  a  tonic.  From  this  time  on,  the 
laxities  of  the  French  encyclopedists,  the  Epicureanism  of 
Wieland,  the  aggressive  individualism  of  the  "Sturmer  und 
Dranger,"  lost  all  hold  upon  the  higher  life  of  the  people. 
Kant  laid  the  foundation  upon  which  the  Germans  rose  to  be 
a  powerful  nation ;  and,  in  this  sense,  it  is  hardly  an  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  his  philosophy  was  to  Germany  what  the 
French  Revolution  was  to  France. 

The  third  of  the  Kritiken  was  that  dealing  with  the 
Urtheilskraft ;  it  was  published  in  1790,  and  contained  Kant's 


CHAP.  XI.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  363 

views  on  the  critical  functions  of  the  mind,  on  the  qualities 
inherent  in  objects  which  awake  our  admiration  or  the 
reverse ;  in  other  words,  the  Kritik  der  Urtheilskraft  is 
Kant's  chief  contribution  to  aesthetics.  In  his  later  years 
he  occupied  himself  much  with  political  philosophy,  and  his 
writings  on  this  subject  betray  the  influence  of  the  French 
Revolution:  only  one  of  these,  Zum  ewigen  Frieden  (1795), 
need  be  mentioned,  a  treatise  in  which  the  possibility  of  a 
free  covenant  between  the  nations  is  discussed. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  stimulus  of  the  critical  philosophy 
showed  itself  in  German  thought.  Herder,  who  had  learned 
so  much  from  Kant  in  his  youth,  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
roused  to  active  and  imbittered  antagonism,  while  K.  L.  K.  L. 
Reinhold  (1758-1823),  from  1787  on,  Professor  of  Philos- 
ophy  in  Jena,  helped  to  popularise  the  new  doctrines  in 
his  Briefe  tiber  die  Kantsche  Philosophic,  which  appeared  in 
Wieland's  Teutsche  Merkur  in  1786  and  1787.  After  Rein- 
hold  left  Jena  for  Kiel  in  1794,  his  place  was  taken  by 
Johann  Gottlieb  Fichte,  a  thinker  who  advanced  German 
philosophy  by  another  great  stage. 

None  of  the  German  poets  of  this  age  gave  himself  up  Schiller 
more  completely  to  the  Kantian  philosophy  than  Schiller,  and  Kant- 
whose  historical  writings  had  already  revealed  an  occasional 
trace  of  Kant's  influence.  In  1786  and  1788,  Schiller 
published  in  the  Thalia  a  number  of  Philosophische  Briefe 
between  two  friends,  that  is  to  say,  between  himself  and 
his  friend  Korner,  and  in  these  letters  the  latter  appears 
as  a  confirmed  Kantian,  while  the  poet  is  still  wrestling 
with  the  rationalism  of  the  age.  Schiller's  interest  in  Kant 
had  thus  been  stimulated  by  Korner,  but  he  did  not  begin 
to  study  the  new  philosophy  in  earnest  before  March,  1791. 
The  aesthetic  side  of  Kant's  philosophy  attracted  him  first, 
and  in  the  winter  of  1792-93,  in  Jena,  he  delivered  a  course 
of  lectures  on  this  theme.  He  also  about  this  time  planned, 
in  the  form  of  a  dialogue,  an  aesthetic  treatise  which  was  to  Schiller's 
have  been  entitled  Kallias.  In  the  first  parts  of  his  Neve 
Thalia  (1792)  he  discussed  the  theory  of  tragedy  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  Kant's  aesthetics,  and  in  1793,  Uber 
Anmuth  und  Wiirde  appeared.  Two  years  later,  it  was 
followed  by  Schiller's  most  important  work  on  aesthetics, 
the  Briefe  uber  die  asthetische  Erziehung  des  Menschcn,  which 


364  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

was  published  in  the  early  numbers  of  the  Horen.  These 
letters,  however,  had  been  written  a  year  or  two  earlier  as 
private  letters  to  Schiller's  patron,  the  Duke  of  Schleswig- 
Holstein-Augustenburg,  who  had  generously  granted  him  a 
pension  of  a  thousand  thalers  for  three  years. 

The  problem  which  Schiller  set  himself  in  his  aesthetic 
writings  was  the  investigation  of  the  nature  of  Beauty  per  se. 
Kant  had  only  discussed  the  Beautiful  in  so  far  as  it  affects 
the  subject,  that  is  to  say,  the  mind  which  appreciates  it. 
Schiller  asks  if  there  is  no  quality  in  the  object  itself  which 
determines  whether  it  is  beautiful  or  not,  and  finds  his  answer 
in  Kant's  quality  of  "self-determination"  {Selbstbestimmung): — 

"  Diese  grosse  Idee  der  Selbstbestimmung,"  he  says,  "strahlt 
uns  aus  gewissen  Erscheinungen  der  Natur  zuriick,  und  diese 
nennen  wir  Schonheit.  .  .  .  Die  Freiheit  in  der  Erscheinung  ist 
also  nichts  anders,  als  die  Selbstbestimmung  an  einem  Dinge, 
insofern  sie  sich  in  der  Anschauung  offenbart." l 

It  was  an  easy  matter  for  Schiller,  who  had  thought  so  long 
and  so  earnestly  on  the  relations  of  art  and  morality,  to  adapt 
to  the  moral  life  this  conception,  which  regarded  the  Beautiful 
as  something  defined  and  governed  by  laws,  but  to  all  appear- 
ance free  from  the  shackles  of  the  law.  The  artistic  side  of 
his  nature  revolted  from  the  unrelenting  severity  of  Kant's 
ethics,  and,  while  recognising  the  importance  of  Kant's  stand 
against  the  moral  laxity  of  the  rationalistic  philosophy,  he 
believed  that  Kant  had  gone  too  far,  and  that  his  ethics  would 
ultimately  result  in  an  abnegation  of  all  art  and  grace.  In 
place  of  stern  categorical  imperatives,  Schiller,  in  Anmuth  und 
Wiirde,  sets  up  as  the  ideal  of  humanity,  a  life  of  beauty  and 
dignity,  which  has  risen,  through  obedience  to  law,  to  perfect 
moral  freedom.  "  Anmuth,"  grace,  beauty,  art,  on  the  one 
hand,  "  Wiirde,"  worth,  dignity,  sublimity  on  the  other — these 
are  the  two  geniuses  which  must  lead  us  through  life : — 

"  Zweyerley  Genien  sinds,  die  durch  das  Leben  dich  leiten, 
Wohl  dir,  wenn  sie  vereint  helfend  zur  Seite  dir  gehn  ! 

Mil  erheiterndem  Spiel  verkiirzt  dir  der  Eine  die  Reise, 
Leichter  an  seinem  Arm  werden  dir  Schicksal  und  Pflicht. 

Unter  Scherz  und  Gesprach  begleitet  er  biss  an  die  Kluft  dich, 
Wo  an  der  Ewigkeit  Meer  schaudernd  der  Sterbliche  steht. 


1  Cp.  Schiller's  letters  to  Kbrner  of  Feb.  18  and  23,  1793  (F.  Jonas,  Schillers 
Briefe,  3,  254  ff. ) ;  also  K.  Berger,  Die  Entwicklung  von  Schillers  Asthetik, 
Weimar,  1894. 


CHAP.  XI.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  365 

Hier    empfa'ngt   dich  entschlossen   und  ernst  und  schweigend   der 
Andre, 

Tragt  mit  gigantischem  Arm  liber  die  Tiefe  dich  bin. 
Nimmer  widme  dich  Einem  allein.     Vertraue  dem  ersten 

Deine  Wurde  nicht  an,  nimmer  dem  andern  dein  Glilck." l 

With   Schiller's   philosophic    studies,    poetry   always    went 
hand  in  hand,  and  to  his  aesthetic  speculations,  his  reflections 
on  the  relations  of  art  and  life,  of  beauty  and  morality,  we 
owe  the  finest  of  his  poems.     Apart  from  the  drama,  Schiller's 
strength  as  a  poet  lies  unquestionably  in  the  philosophic  lyric. 
Poems   such   as   Der    Genius,    Der   Tanz,  Die    Wiirde   der  Phiio- 
frauen,  Macht  des  Gesanges,  Der  Spaziergang  reproduce  in  *°Pmc 
ever-changing  forms — now  light  and  graceful,  now  swept  along 
by  a  mighty  rhetoric,  or  emphasised  by  an  almost  antique 
pathos — the  thoughts   that  inspire   Uber  Anmut  und  Wiirde. 
His    highest   achievements    in    this    type    of    lyric   are   Die 
Ideale   and    Das    Ideal  und  das   Leben    (originally    entitled  Das  Ideal 
Das  Reich  der  Schatten\  the  latter  perhaps  the  noblest  of  ™$e%as 
all  philosophic  lyrics.     Schiller  here  gives  expression  to  the   1795. ' 
ideals  of  his  own  life,  that  rising  up  through  the  joy  of  sense 
to  peace  of  soul,  that  realisation  of  the  great  humanitarian 
conception  of  moral  freedom,  of  the  perfect  spiritualisation 
of  life;  for,  to  him,  beauty  and  movement,  art  and  life,  are 
in  their  ultimate  perfection  inseparable.     Not  as  a  heaven- 
storming  Prometheus  of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  but  with  that 
tranquillity  of  soul  which  is  in  harmony  with  law,  Herakles, 
the  type  of  aspiring   humanity,  rises  in  Das  Ideal  und  das 
Leben  to  the  pure  realms  of  Olympus : — 

"  Biss  der  Gott  des  Irrdischen  entkleidet, 
Flammend  sich  vom  Menschen  scheidet, 
Und  des  Athers  leichte  Llifte  trinkt. 
Froh  des  neuen  ungewohnten  Schwebens 
Fliesst  er  aufwarts,  und  des  Erdenlebens 
Schweres  Traumbild  sinkt  und  sinkt  und  sinkt 
Des  Olympus  Harmonien  empfangen 
Den  Verklarten  in  Kronions  Saal, 
Und  die  Gottin  mit  den  Rosenwangen 
Reicht  ihm  lachelnd  den  Pokal."2 

On  sending  this  poem  to  Humboldt,  Schiller  wrote :   "  Wenn 
Sie  diesen  Brief  erhalten,  liebster  Freund,  so  entfernen  Sie 

1  Schon  und  Erhaben  (  Werkt,  n,  94). 

2  Schriflen,  n,  61. 


366  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

alles,  was  profan  ist,  und  lesen  in  geweyhter  Stille  dieses 
Gedicht."1  And  the  impression  left  upon  Humboldt  did 
not  belie  its  author's  expectations. 

Of  the  new  friends  made  by  Schiller  in  Jena,  none  stood 
nearer  to  him  than  Humboldt,  who  had  settled  here  in  the 
K.  W.  von  beginning  of  1794,  expressly  on  Schiller's  account.  Karl 
ii6>i8>ldt'  Wilhelm  von  Humboldt  (i  767-1835)2  was  the  elder  brother 
of  the  more  universally  known  traveller  and  scientist,  F.  H. 
Alexander  von  Humboldt  (1769-1859),  whose  Kosmos  (1845- 
58)  remains  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  scientific  literature. 
Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  a  man  of  action  rather  than  words, 
was  one  of  the  makers  of  modern  Germany ;  as  Prussian 
Minister  of  Education,  he  was  virtually  the  founder  of  the 
new  University  of  Berlin,  which  was  inaugurated  in  1810. 
To  Humboldt  more  than  to  any  other,  Germany  owed  a 
practical  realisation  of  the  ideals  of  her  classical  poets 
and  thinkers ;  he  laid  the  basis  for  the  higher  education  and 
culture  of  the  nation.  At  this  time  he  was  an  invaluable 
friend  to  Schiller ;  he  shared  the  poet's  philosophical  en- 
thusiasms, and  aided  and  encouraged  him  in  his  quest  in 
Greek  literature  for  the  highest  form  of  poetry.  Humboldt 
himself  translated  the  Agamemnon  of  ^Eschylus  (1816),  and 
criticised  Hermann  und  Dorothea  (Asthetische  Versuche,  1799) 
with  an  understanding  and  sympathy  which  explain  the  con- 
fidence Goethe  and  Schiller  placed  in  him.  His  most  im- 
portant work  as  a  critic  and  scholar  belongs  to  the  field  of 
comparative  philology. 

The  German  classical  age  is,  as  it  were,  summed  up  in  the 
friendship  of  Goethe  and  Schiller;  and  E.  RietschePs  noble 
statue  of  the  two  poets,  which  stands  in  front  of  the  Ducal 
Theatre  in  Weimar,  expresses  admirably  this  supreme  moment 
in  the  history  of  literature.  The  obstacles  that  stood  in  the 
way  of  an  intimacy  between  the  two  poets  have  already  been 
referred  to :  on  Goethe's  side,  a  reluctance  to  appreciate 
Schiller's  good  qualities ;  on  Schiller's,  a  distrust  which  was 
made  up  half  of  dislike,  half  of  jealousy.  The  deepest  insight 
Schiller's  into  Schiller's  mind  at  this  time  is  afforded  by  the  last  of  his 
vndsenti-  ^h^c  writings,  Uber  naive  und  sentimentalische  Dichtung 

mentalische  i  Cp.  Briefwechsel  swischen  Schiller  und  W.  von  Humboldt,  2nd  ed.,  Stutt- 
Dichtung,  gart,  1876-77  (F.  Jonas,  Schillers  Briefe,  4,  232).  For  Humboldt's  reply,  see 
I795-  former  work,  p.  83. 

2  Cp.  R.  Haym,  W.  von  Humboldt,  Berlin,  1856. 


CHAP.  XI.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  367 


which    he   himself  characterised   as  a  bridge  from 
philosophic  theory  to  poetic  production. 

Uber  naive  und  sentimentalische  Dichtung  is  a  study  of  the 
fundamental  nature  of  poetry.  Schiller  here  investigates  the 
conditions  of  poetic  production  and  discovers  two  types  of 
mind,  the  "naive"  and  the  "sentimental,"  the  latter  word 
being  used  in  its  familiar  eighteenth  -  century  sense  of 
"  reflective  "  or  "  meditative."  All  primitive  poetry,  says 
Schiller,  is  naive,  that  is  to  say,  contains  observation  rather 
than  reflection  ;  the  perfect  examples  of  this  class  of  poetry 
are  to  be  found  in  Greek  literature,  above  all,  in  Homer. 
But  —  and  here  one  sees  a  certain  kinship  of  Schiller's 
thought  with  that  of  Rousseau  —  this  naive  quality  is  not 
only  characteristic  of  primitive  poets,  it  is  also  a  mark  of 
the  highest  genius,  even  in  modern  literatures.  Shakespeare 
is  a  naive  poet,  and  so  is  Goethe.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
bulk  of  modern  poetry  is  "sentimental,"  that  is  to  say,  the 
modern  poet  prefers  to  reflect,  to  muse,  to  desire,  instead 
of  simply  observing  and  giving  artistic  form  to  his  observa- 
tions. Of  all  Schiller's  aesthetic  writings,  Uber  naive  und 
sentimentalische  Dichtung  had  the  deepest  and  most  im- 
mediate influence  on  his  contemporaries.  But  there  was 
also  a  personal  side  to  the  treatise,  which  is  important  to  a 
clear  understanding  of  Schiller's  own  development  He  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  become  a  warm  admirer  of  Greek  poetry; 
the  naive  poetry  of  the  ancients  clearly  represented  to  him 
the  ideal  of  all  poetry.  The  same  quality  of  naivete,  he 
had  also  discerned  in  Goethe;  but  when  he  scrutinised 
himself  and  his  own  genius,  he  found  that  he  was  com- 
pletely devoid  of  naivete.  The  vital  problem  that  now  pre- 
sented itself  to  him  was,  to  discover  reasons  for  the  existence 
of  a  poet  who  had  not  this  quality;  by  the  side  of  the 
great  poetry  of  antiquity,  of  a  Shakespeare  and  a  Goethe  in 
modern  literature,  what  room  was  there  for  his  own  writings? 
Following  out  this  line  of  thought,  he  ultimately  arrived  at 
the  conviction  that  he  himself  fulfilled  the  conditions  of  a 
purely  modern  or  "  sentimental  "  poet. 

Having  thus  justified  his  work  beside  Goethe's,  there  was  Friendship 
no  further  obstacle  on  Schiller's   side  to  a  closer  intimacy, 
and  the  first  step  towards  a  better  understanding  was  made 
by  him.     On  the  i3th  of  June,  1794,  he  wrote  to  Goethe  the 


368  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

letter  which  opens  the  correspondence  between  the  two  poets,1 
asking  him  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  editorship  of  a  new 

Die Horen,  journal,  Die  Horen  (1795-97),  which  he  was  about  to  publish. 

1795-97-  Goethe  agreed,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  both  poets 
had  discovered  a  surprising  agreement  in  their  views  of  life 
and  poetry ;  both  had  reason  to  regret  that  it  had  taken  so 
long  for  them  to  come  to  an  understanding  with  each  other. 
Die  Horen,  however,  proved  little  more  successful  than 
Schiller's  previous  journals.  His  own  contributions,  such  as 
the  Brief t  iiber  die  dsthetische  Erziehung  des  Menschen  (1795), 
and  the  Merkwiirdige  Belagerung  von  Antwerpen  (1795),  were 
hardly  likely  to  make  the  journal  popular,  while  Goethe's 
contributions  allowed  of  no  comparison  with  Wilhelm  Meister, 
which  at  this  time  was  being  published  as  the  last  volumes  of 
his  collected  works.  And  what  came  from  other  contributors, 
from  Herder,  Fichte,  Meyer  and  the  Schlegels,  did  not 
materially  raise  the  level  of  the  journal.  To  the  Horen, 
Goethe  contributed  the  Rbmischen  Elegien  (1795)  and  the 
Unterhaltungen  deutscher  Ausgewanderten  (1795),  a  collection 
of  stories  which  add  nothing  to  his  prestige  as  a  novelist, 
although  they  help  us  to  appreciate  his  attitude  towards 
the  French  Revolution.  Benvenuto  Cellini  (1796-97),  which 
began  to  appear  in  the  sixth  volume  of  the  journal,  was  but  a 
translation  of  Cellini's  own  biography. 

The  failure  of  the  Horen  stung  Goethe  and  Schiller  to 
retaliate  on  the  writers  of  the  day,  whom  they  held  responsible 
for  the  bad  taste  of  the  public.  Their  retaliation  took  the 
form  of  a  collection  of  distichs,  to  which,  in  imitation  of 

The  Martial,  they  gave  the  title,  Xenien.     There  is  hardly  another 

i^oo"™'  incident  in  the  history  of  German  literature  which  it  is  so  diffi- 
cult for  us  to  understand  as  the  "  Xenienkampf,"  which  fol- 
lowed the  publication  of  the  Xenien  in  Schiller's  Musenal- 
manach  for  1796.  The  satire  of  these  distichs,  like  all  purely 
literary  satire,  has  lost  its  virulence,  and  much  which,  in  its 
day,  had  power  to  sting,  even  to  wound,  now  seems  harmless. 
But  the  Xenien  were  an  effective  protest  against  mediocrity ; 
the  cavilling  criticism  which  the  minor  coteries  of  Berlin 
and  Leipzig  had  directed  against  Goethe  and  Schiller  was, 

1  Ed.  W.  Vollmer,  3rd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1881.  Cp.  for  the  following,  the  intro- 
duction to  my  edition  of  Selections  from  the  Correspondence  between  Schiller 
and  Goethe,  Boston,  1898. 


CHAP.  XI.]          THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  369 

for  a  time  at  least,  silenced ;  the  air  was  cleared,  and  both 
poets  felt  it  incumbent  on  them  to  follow  up  their  victory 
with  "  some  great  and  worthy  work  of  art."  The  immediate 
results  of  this  resolution  were  Wallenstein  and  Hermann  und 
Dorothea. 

The  plan  of  Wallenstein  had  been  sketched  out  as  early  Wailen- 
as  1791,  before  the  Geschichte  des  dreissigjdhrigen  Krieges  was  *tei*> 
concluded.  The  drama  is  not  mentioned  again  in  Schiller's 
correspondence  until  1794,  when  a  couple  of  months  seem 
to  have  been  devoted  to  it.  Once  more,  however,  it  was 
thrown  aside  and  not  resumed  until  1796,  when,  under  the 
stimulus  of  Goethe's  encouragement,  Schiller  began  to  work 
steadily  at  it.  Thus  the  composition  of  Wallenstein  extends 
over  the  momentous  period  of  its  author's  development,  in 
which  he  passed  from  utilitarian  rationalism  to  Kantian 
idealism.1  More  than  any  other  of  his  dramas,  Wallenstein 
shows  traces  of  the  poet's  intellectual  growth,  the  transition 
in  his  interests  from  history  to  philosophy,  and  from  phil- 
osophy to  poetry.  In  his  original  plan,  Schiller  probably  had 
in  view  a  tragedy  similar  to  Don  Carlos,  depending  merely  on 
intrigue  for  its  interest.  As  it  now  stands,  it  is  the  most 
monumental  of  all  his  works,  and  the  ripest  historical  tragedy 
in  the  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Although  nominally  consisting  of  three  plays,  Wallenstein  is 
not  a  trilogy  in  the  accepted  sense  of  that  word.     In  its 
earliest  form  it  was  only  one  play,  and  it  is  still  best  regarded 
as  a  tragedy  in  ten  acts,  preceded  by  a  "Vorspiel."     This 
"  Vorspiel,"    Wallensteins  Lager,   paints    the    "  finstern    Zeit-  steins 
grund  "  of  the  tragedy ;  it  presents  a  living  panorama  of  the   i'^98. ' 
motley  elements  that  make  up  the  camp  before  Pilsen  : — 

"  In  den  kiihnen  Schaaren, 
Die  sein  Befehl  gewaltig  lenkt,  sein  Geist 
Beseelt,  wird  euch  sein  Schattenbild  begegnen.   .   .  . 
Denn  seine  Macht  ist's,  die  sein  Herz  verfiihrt, 
Sein  Lager  nur  erklaret  sein  Verbrechen." 

The  forces  which  are  to  play  so  great  a  part  in  the  tragedy 
itself  are  here  foreshadowed  in  the  rough  soldiers  of  Wal- 
lenstein's  army;  the  camp,  as  it  is  described  in  this  finely 

1  Cp.  E.  Kiihnemann,  Die  Kantischen  Studien  Schillers  und  die  /Composi- 
tion des  Wallenstein,  Marburg,  1889,  and  K.  Werder,  Vorlesungen  liter 
Schillers  Wallenstein,  Berlin,  1889. 

2   A 


37O  THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

conceived  introduction,  is  the  background,  or,  to  use  the 
phrase  of  modern  criticism,  the  milieu  of  the  drama.  And 
against  this  background  rises,  in  the  two  chief  dramas,  the 
figure  of  Wallenstein  : — 

"  der  Schdpfer  kiihner  Heere, 
Des  Lagers  Abgott  und  der  Lander  Geissel, 
Die  Stutze  und  der  Schrecken  seines  Kaisers, 
Des  Gluckes  abentheuerlicher  Sohn, 
Der  von  der  Zeiten  Gunst  emporgetragen, 
Der  Ehre  hochste  Staffeln  rasch  erstieg 
Und  ungesattigt  immer  weiter  strebend, 
Der  unbezahmten  Ehrsucht  Opfer  fiel. 
Von  der  Partheyen  Gunst  und  Hass  verwirrt 
Schwankt  sein  Charakterbild  in  der  Geschichte, 
Doch  euren  Augen  soil  ihn  jetzt  die  Kunst, 
Auch  eurem_Herzen  menschlich  naher  bringen. 
Denn  jedes  Ausserste  ftihrt  sie,  die  alles 
Begrenzt  und  bindet,  zur  Natur  zuriick, 
Sie  sieht  den  Menschen  in  des  Lebens  Drang 
Und  walzt  die  grdssre  Halfte  seiner  Schuld 
Den  ungliickseligen  Gestirnen  zu." 

These  words  from  the  Prolog^  which  Schiller  wrote  for  the 
first  performance  of  Wallensteins  Lager,  show  how  the  poet 
intended  his  hero's  character  to  be  understood.  At  the 
Die  Pic-  beginning  of  Die  Piccolomini,  the  first  of  the  two  dramas 
coiomim,  which  constitute  the  tragedy  proper,  Wallenstein  is  at  the 
highest  point  of  his  career,  and  his  ambitions  are  set  on  the 
crown  of  Bohemia  and  on  seeing  himself  the  chief  power  in 
Germany.  To  attain  this  end,  he  trusts,  in  the  first  place,  to 
the  army  which  he  has  himself  created.  But  this  is  not 
enough ;  to  turn  the  balance  of  power,  he  must  enter  into 
an  alliance  with  the  Protestant  Swedes,  the  enemies  of  his 
emperor.  Before,  however,  taking  this  traitorous  step,  he 
awaits  the  decision  of  the  stars.  Field-Marshal  Illo  and  Graf 
Terzky,  Wallen stein's  brother-in-law,  impatient  of  delay,  endeav- 
our to  stimulate  him  to  action.  At  a  banquet  they  obtain, 
under  false  pretences,  the  signatures  of  the  half-intoxicated 
generals  to  a  document,  in  which  the  latter  declare  their  inten- 
tion to  remain  faithful  to  their  leader,  even  though  he  prove 
a  traitor  to  the  emperor.  One  of  these  generals,  Octavio 
Piccolomini,  an  Italian,  and  the  friend  in  whom  Wallenstein 
places  most  reliance,  is  not  blind  to  the  treason  the  latter 
meditates,  but  he  is  in  no  hurry  to  act.  He  possesses  the 

1  Sckriften,  xa,  5  ff. 


CHAP.  XI.]          THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  371 

sign-manual  of  the  emperor,  which  empowers  him  to  depose 
Wallenstein  and  himself  assume  the  leadership  of  the  forces. 
Octavio's  son,  Max  Piccolomini,  on  the  other  hand,  clings  to 
his  leader  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  youthful  hero-worship; 
moreover,  he  loves  Wallenstein's  daughter,  Thekla,  and,  in  spite 
of  his  father's  warning,  will  not  believe  in  Wallenstein's  treason. 
Even  the  report  that  the  latter's  envoy  to  the  Swedes  has 
been  captured  and  his  plot  discovered,  does  not  convince  the 
younger  Piccolomini.  He  will  only  believe  that  Wallenstein 
is  a  traitor  when  he  hears  it  from  his  own  lips  : — 

"  Rein  muss  es  bleiben  zwischen  mir  und  ihm, 
Und  eh'  der  Tag  sich  neigt,  muss  sich's  erklaren, 
Ob  ich  den  Freund,  ob  ich  den  Vater  soil  entbehren."  * 

With  these  words,  the  first  part  of  the  tragedy  ends. 

If  Die  Piccolomini,  regarded  for  itself,  suffers  from  the  fact 
that  it  only  leads  up  to  events  which  take  place  in  the  sequel, 
Wallensteins  Tod  is  almost  overweighted  with  the  fulness  of  Wallen- 

its  dramatic  action.     In  this  play,  Schiller  reveals  himself  for  steins  Todt 

.  1 799. 

the  first  time  as  a  tragic  poet  of  the  highest  order.  The  net- 
work with  which  Wallenstein  is  surrounded  is  closing  fast 
upon  him.  The  documents  that  prove  his  treason  are  in  the 
hands  of  his  enemies,  and  an  interview  with  Wrangel,  a 
Swedish  colonel,  forces  him  to  act.  He  throws  in  his  lot 
with  the  Swedes.  On  Octavio,  whom  he  still  blindly  trusts, 
he  places  responsibilities  with  which  the  Italian  naturally 
strengthens  his  own  hand.  Regiment  after  regiment  breaks 
away  from  him  and  declares  anew  its  allegiance  to  the 
emperor.  Wallenstein  at  last  stands  alone,  a  figure  of  tragic 
grandeur : — 

"  Es  ist  entschieden,  nun  ist's  gut — und  schnell 
Bin  ich  geheilt  von  alien  Zweifelsqualen, 
Die  Brust  ist  wieder  frey,  der  Geist  ist  hell, 
Nacht  muss  es  seyn,  wo  Friedlands  Sterne  strahlen. 
Mit  zdgerndem  Entschluss,  mit  wankendem  Gemilth 
Zog  ich  das  Schwert,  ich  that's  mit  Widerstreben, 
Da  es  in  meine  Wahl  noch  war  gegeben  ! 
Nothwendigkeit  ist  da,  der  Zweifel  flieht, 
Jetzt  fecht'  ich  fiir  mein  Haupt  und  fUr  mein  Leben."2 

Nemesis  follows  fast  on  Wallenstein's  heels.  The  hardest 
blow  of  all  is  when  he  learns  that  Max  Piccolomini  has 

1  Act  5,  sc.  3  ( Werke,  12,  198). 
a  Act  3,  sc.  10  (  Werke,  12,  292). 


372  THE   ETGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

deserted  him.  Escaping  with  the  followers  he  still  believes 
faithful  to  him,  Wallenstein  reaches  Eger,  where  Illo,  Terzky, 
and  he  are  murdered  by  Buttler,  a  friend  he  has  been  too 
blind  to  distrust.  The  tragedy  closes — a  fine  touch  of  irony 
— with  the  arrival  of  a  messenger  from  the  emperor,  con- 
ferring upon  Octavio  the  title  "Fiirst." 

At  the  time  Schiller  was  completing  Wallenstein,  a  favourite 
subject  of  discussion  between  himself  and  Goethe  was,  as  is 
to  be  seen  from  the  correspondence  of  the  two  poets,  the 
difference  between  the  Greek  ideals  of  literature  and  those  of 
modern  literature.  The  practical  problem  which  each  tacitly 
set  himself  was  how  he  might  best  combine  the  excellences 
of  Greek  and  modern  poetry,  and  the  trilogy  of  Wallenstein, 
as  Hettner  has  pointed  out,1  was  Schiller's  answer  to  this 
problem.  The  tragedy  of  Wallenstein's  life  is  only  partially 
due  to  his  own  fault — his  overweening  ambition  on  the  one 
hand,  his  blindness  and  irresolution  on  the  other;  the  poet 
makes  us  at  the  same  time  share  his  hero's  faith  in  the  "  un- 
gliickselige  Gestirne,"  which  forms  so  fine  a  poetic  motive  in 
the  play.  The  irresistible  movement  of  events  makes  the 
catastrophe  inevitable  from  the  beginning ;  for,  as  Schiller  says 
in  the  Geschichte  des  dreissigjdhrigen  Krieges,  "Wallenstein 
fiel,  nicht  weil  er  Rebell  war,  sondern  er  rebellirte,  weil  er 
fiel." 2  Masterly,  above  all,  is  the  art  with  which  Schiller 
has  moulded  the  historical  Wallenstein — properly,  Waldstein 
— into  a  tragic  hero  of  the  first  order ;  our  sympathies  for  the 
hero  are  never  allowed  to  waver,  even  although  he  stands 
throughout  the  drama  in  the  shadow  of  treason.  With  his 
firm  conviction  that  he  is  born  to  greatness,  his  belief  in 
a  higher  power  that  leads  him,  Wallenstein  becomes  in  his 
fall  a  tragic  figure,  worthy  of  a  place  beside  CEdipus  or  Lear. 
Goethe  had  undoubtedly  this  mastery  of  characterisation  in 
his  mind,  when  he  said,  "  Schillers  Wallenstein  ist  so  gross, 
dass  in  seiner  Art  zum  zweyten  Mai  nicht  etwas  Ahnliches 
mehr  vorhanden  ist."  3 

Not  alone  Wallenstein  himself,  but  also  the  other  actors  in 
the  tragedy,  above  all,  Buttler,  Terzky,  Illo,  and  Octavio,  are 

1  Literattirgeschichte  des  achtxehnten  Jahrhunderts,  4th  ed.,  Brunswick,  1894, 
3,  3,  2,  247 ;  cp.,  however,  L.  Bellermann,  Schillers  Dramen,  Berlin,  1888-91, 
a,  55  ff- 

»  Werke,  8,  353. 

1  J.  P.  Eckermann,  Gesprdche  mit  Goethe  (July  23,  1827),  i,  381. 


CHAP.  XI.]  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  373 

a  marked  advance  on  the  characters  of  Schiller's  earlier  plays ; 
they  are  drawn  with  more  delicate  lines.  The  least  con- 
vincing of  the  male  figures  is  Max  Piccolomini,  the  youthful 
idealist,  who  provides  a  foil  to  the  realist,  Wallenstein ; 
the  poet's  art  is  nowhere  more  of  the  eighteenth  century  than 
in  these  unreal  embodiments  of  youth  which,  from  this  time 
on,  appear  with  little  variation  in  all  his  plays.  Of  the 
female  figures  of  the  drama  there  is  little  to  say;  the  best 
of  them  is  Terzky's  wife,  in  whom  Schiller  perfected  the 
type  of  heroine  he  had  already  drawn  in  Lady  Milford  and 
the  Princess  Eboli.  Wallenstein's  daughter  Thekla,  on  the 
other  hand,  like  her  lover  Max  Piccolomini,  seems  a  some- 
what incongruous  figure  in  a  tragedy  with  such  enormous 
political  issues;  but,  like  the  love  episodes  in  the  French 
classical  drama,  the  scenes  between  Max  and  Thekla  are 
rather  a  concession  to  the  taste  of  the  time  than  an  integral 
part  of  the  whole. 


374 


Goethe's 

Hermann 

und 

Dorothea, 

1798. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

GOETHE'S  CLASSICISM;  THE  FIRST  PART  OF  FAUST. 

THE  trilogy  of  Wallenstein  was  Schiller's  practical  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  which  the  two  poets  set  themselves, 
namely,  to  reconcile  the  literary  art  of  the  Greeks  with  that 
of  the  modern  world ;  the  answer  which  Goethe  offered  was 
Hermann  und  Dorothea  (1798;  virtually  October,  1797). 
While  Schiller  endeavoured  to  combine  the  dramaturgic  prin- 
ciples of  ancient  tragedy  with  those  of  Shakespeare,  Goethe, 
in  Hermann  und  Dorothea,  aimed  at  creating  a  modern 
epic,  which  should  be  suffused  with  the  spirit  of  Homer. 
The  model  for  the  poem  was,  of  course,  in  the  first  instance, 
Voss's  Luise,  and  like  Luise,  Hermann  und  Dorothea  is  written 
in  those  classical  hexameters  which  Voss  adapted  to  Ger- 
man requirements.  Goethe's  epic  is  founded  upon  an  inci- 
dent said  to  have  happened  more  than  sixty  years  before 
the  poet's  time,  at  Altmuhl,  near  Ottingen,  in  Bavaria,  where 
the  son  of  a  well-to-do  family  found  his  bride  among  a 
party  of  emigrants  from  Salzburg.  Goethe  made  use  of  the 
anecdote  in  its  general  outlines,  modernised  it,  and  gave  it, 
as  background,  the  stormy  sky  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  the 
scene  is  a  German  village  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine, 
and  his  emigrants  come  from  France.  Hermann,  son  of 
the  host  of  the  "  Golden  Lion,"  is  sent  by  his  mother  with 
linen  and  provisions  to  assist  the  fugitives.  Overtaking 
them,  he  finds  Dorothea  leading  a  bullock-cart,  in  which 
lies  a  woman  who  has  just  given  birth  to  a  child.  He  at 
once  feels  an  instinctive  admiration  for  Dorothea,  and  places 
his  provisions  in  her  hands,  confident  that  she  will  distribute 
them  wisely.  Hermann's  father  now  finds  him  no  longer 
unwilling  to  think  of  marriage,  and  expects  his  son  to 


CHAP.  XII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  375 

choose  a  bride  with  a  dowry,  or,  at  least,  one  of  higher 
rank  than  a  peasant.  This  naturally  comes  as  a  blow  to  the 
young  man's  hopes,  but  his  mother  wins  his  confidence,  and 
bids  him  tell  his  father  all.  The  host  of  the  "  Golden  Lion  " 
hears  of  the  emigrant-girl'  in  silence;  the  pastor,  however, 
takes  Hermann's  part,  and  the  apothecary,  who  is  more 
wary,  suggests  that  he  and  the  pastor  should  first  make 
inquiries  about  Dorothea.  Hermann's  father  agrees  to  place 
no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  marriage,  should  the  two  friends 
be  satisfied  with  what  they  hear.  The  accounts  they  bring 
home  are  favourable,  and  Hermann  awaits  Dorothea  at  the 
well.  He  cannot,  however,  bring  himself  to  speak  of  love : — 

"  ihr  Auge  blickte  nicht  Liebe, 
Aber  hellen  Verstand,  und  gebot  verstandig  zu  reden." 

So  he  tells  her  that  his  mother  wishes  to  have  some  one  in 
the  house  to  help  her  and  to  take  the  place  of  a  daughter  she 
has  lost.  Will  Dorothea  accept  the  position?  The  home- 
less girl  is  glad  to  become,  as  she  believes,  a  servant  in  the 
"  Golden  Lion."  But  now  she  must  return,  for — 

"  Die  Madchen 

Warden  immer  getadelt,  die  lange  beym  Brunnen  verweilen  ; 
Und  doch  ist  es  am  rinnenden  Quell  so  lieblich  zu  schwatzen. 
Also  standen  sie  auf  und  schauten  Beide  noch  einmal 
In  den  Brunnen  zurtick,  und  susses  Verlangen  ergriffsie. 

Schweigend  nahm  sie  darauf  die  beiden  Kriige  beym  Henkel, 
Stieg  die  Stufen  hinan,  und  Hermann  folgte  der  Lieben. 
Einen  Krug  verlangt  er  von  ihr,  die  Biirde  zu  theilen. 
Lasst  ihn,  sprach  sie  ;  es  tragt  sich  besser  die  gleichere  Last  so. 
Und  der  Herr,  der  kunftig  befiehlt,  er  soil  mir  nicht  dienen. 
Seht  mich  so  ernst  nicht  an,  als  ware  mein  Schicksal  bedenklich  I 
Dienen  lerne  bey  Zeiten  das  Weib  nach  ihrer  Bestimmung  ; 
Denn  durch  Dienen  allein  gelangt  sie  endlich  zum  Herrschen, 
Zu  der  verdienten  Gewalt,  die  doch  ihr  im  Hause  gehoret. 
Dienet  die  Schwester  dem  Bruder  doch  friih,  sie  dienet  den  Eltern, 
Und  ihr  Leben  ist  immer  ein  ewiges  Gehen  und  Kommen, 
Oder  ein  Heben  und  Tragen,  Bereiten  und  Schaffen  fur  Andre." l 

Amidst  affectionate  embraces  and  the  tears  of  the  children, 
Dorothea  takes  leave  of  her  friends,  and,  as  the  night 
approaches,  returns  with  Hermann  to  the  village.  He  shows 
her  his  father's  house  lying  in  the  moonlight  and  the  window 

*  Canto  7  ("  Erato  "),  51  f.,  and  103  ff.  ( Werke,  50,  346  ff.) 


376 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


that  is  to  be  hers,  and  as  they  make  their  way  down  the  rough 
path,  her  foot  slips  and,  for  a  moment,  she  rests  in  his  arms. 
At  length  the  house  is  reached,  and  Hermann's  father,  be- 
lieving all  to  be  settled,  welcomes  Dorothea  by  complimenting 
her  on  her  choice  of  his  son.  Dorothea  is  confused ;  after 
such  a  greeting,  it  is  impossible  for  her  to  remain.  A  word 
from  Hermann,  however,  explains  everything,  and  the  dower- 
less  stranger  is  warmly  received  as  the  future  mistress  of  the 
"Golden  Lion." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  better  illustration  than 
Hermann  und  Dorothea  of  Goethe's  dictum  that  there  is 
poetry  in  everything,  if  the  poet  only  knows  how  to  bring  it 
to  light.  Goethe  has  here  taken  a  commonplace  subject  and 
treated  it  in  the  Homeric  manner,  without  for  a  moment 
leaving  the  impression  that  the  means  used  are  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  end.  Over  the  whole  poem  lies  a  calm,  classic 
objectivity ;  the  characters  —  the  Host  of  the  Lion,  the 
apothecary,  the  pastor,  Hermann's  mother — are  not  drawn 
with  the  sharp  individuality  of  Gotz  or  Werther;  they  are 
not  exceptions,  but  universal  types  of  human  life.  Hermann 
is  the  young  German  burgher  who  stands  as  an  example  of 
his  class ;  Dorothea,  the  emigrant,  is  an  embodiment  of  the 
restless,  unsettled  life  for  which  the  French  Revolution  was 
responsible,  wherever  its  influence  made  itself  felt.  Thus, 
although  the  scenes  and  incidents  of  Hermann  und  Dorothea 
are  provincial,  we  never  forget  the  wider  issues  of  human 
life  and  society,  which  lie  behind  the  poem.1 

After  Hermann  und  Dorothea,  Goethe  sought  other  themes 
Epic  plans,  that  would  admit  of  epic  treatment.  From  the  year  1797 
date  various  schemes,  Die  Jagd>  Tell,  and  Die  Achilleis — the 
latter  an  attempt  both  to  be  Homeric  in  spirit  and  to  meet 
Homer  on  his  own  ground — but  not  more  than  two  cantos 
were  written,  while  the  other  two  poems  were  only  planned. 
A  more  fruitful  side  of  Goethe's  activity,  as  of  Schiller's,  in 
1797,  was  the  ballad-poetry  which  both  contributed  in  such 
profusion  to  the  Musenalmanach  fur  1798.  In  the  summer 
of  1797  Goethe  wrote  two  of  the  finest  of  his  ballads,  Der 
Zauberlehrling  and  Der  Gott  und  die  Bayadere ;  to  this  year, 
too,  belong  Die  Braut  von  Korinth  and  the  cycle  of  ballads 
known  as  Die  Schone  Mullerin,  the  fresh,  natural  tone  of 

1  Cp.  V.  Hehn,  Ober  Goethes  Hermann  und  Dorothea,  Stuttgart,  1893. 


The  "Bal 
ladenal- 
manach," 
1798. 


CHAP.  XII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  377 

which  forms  a  contrast  to  the  rapidly  stiffening  classicism  of 
Goethe's  epic  and  dramatic  poetry. 

Schiller's  contributions  to  the  "  Balladenalmanach "  show 
a  most  striking  advance  on  his  former  work  :  we  have  only, 
indeed,  to  compare  the  lyrics  and  ballads  he  wrote  at  this 
time  with  those  he  had  published  in  the  earlier  Almanachs 
for  1796  and  1797,  to  see  how  beneficial  Goethe's  friendship 
had  been'  to  the  younger  poet.  The  purely  sensuous  and  lyric 
mood  which  Goethe  knew  so  well  how  to  conjure  up,  lay,  it  is 
true,  beyond  Schiller's  reach,  but  the  new  ballads  testify  to  a 
remarkable  plastic  and  dramatic  power,  while  the  metaphysical 
has  to  a  large  extent  given  way  to  the  concrete.  Der 
Taucher,  Der  Handschuh^  Die  Burgschaft,  and  Der  Kampf 
mit  dem  Drachen  are  not  without  a  moralising  tendency,  but 
the  narrative  has  now  the  chief  place.  Another  group  of 
ballads  which  Schiller  wrote  in  these  years,  stands  in  intimate 
relation  to  his  classical  studies.  The  chief  poems  of  this 
group,  Der  Ring  des  Polykrates,  Die  Kraniche  des  Ibykus> 
and  Der  Gang  nach  dem  Eisenhammer,  are  based  on  the 
Greek  conception  of  destiny ;  and  in  the  lyric  poems,  such 
as  Die  Begegnung,  Das  Ge/ieimm'ss,  Die  Erwartung,  the 
classical  influence  is  also  the  dominant  one.  But  the  crown 
of  Schiller's  non-dramatic  poetry  is  unquestionably  Das  Lied  Das  Lied 
von  der  Glocke,  which  was  completed  in  September,  1799.  VQ^O^ 
The  motto  of  this  poem,  which  in  successive  scenes  describes  1799. 
the  making  of  a  bell,  is  the  full-sounding  inscription,  "  Vivos 
voco,  Mortuos  plango,  Fulgura  frango,"  engraven  on  the 
Minster  bell  at  Schafifhausen.  The  master  and  his  appren- 
tices watch  over  the  molten  metal,  free  it  from  all  impurities, 
and  pour  it  into  the  mould,  from  which  the  bell  ultimately 
emerges  to  be  hoisted  into  the  tower  and  to  ring  out  "  Peace  " 
to  men ;  and  as  the  work  proceeds,  Schiller  follows  in  reflec- 
tion "  des  Lebens  wechselvolles  Spiel."  Thus  the  Lied  von 
der  Glocke  becomes,  as  it  were,  an  epitome  of  human  life,  its 
joys  and  its  sorrows. 

The  portion  of  Goethe's  life  which  lay  between  the  publica- 
tion of  Hermann  und  Dorothea  and  that  of  Faust  in  1808, 
was  by  no  means  so  productive  as  were  the  last  six  years  of 
his  friend's,  to  which  we  shall  return  in  the  next  chapter ;  but 
what  he  did  write  was  significant.  With  the  Achilleis,  he  had 
discovered  that  to  the  imitation  of  classical  models  there  was 


378 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Goethe's 
"  Fest- 
spiele." 


Die  natur- 
liche 
Tochter, 
1804. 


Goethe  and 
the  French 
Revolu- 
tion. 


a  limit  which  the  modern  poet  is  obliged  to  respect ;  but  the 
"  P'estspiele "  which  he  composed  for  the  Weimar  theatre, 
Paldophron  und  Neoterpe  (1800),  an  allegory  of  the  meeting 
between  the  new  time  and  the  old,  Was  wir  bringen  (1802), 
and  the  Vorspiel  zur  Eroffnung  des  Weimarischen  Theaters,  in 
September,  1807,  over  which  the  figure  of  Napoleon  throws 
its  shadow,  are  all  cast  in  forbiddingly  classical  moulds.  More 
in  accordance  with  the  taste  of  the  time  was  the  historical 
tragedy,  Die  natiirliche  Tochter  (1804),  completed  in  the 
spring  of  1803.  Goethe  had  found  the  theme  in  the  Memoirs, 
which  were  published  in  1798,  of  Princess  Stephanie  Louise 
de  Bourbon-Conti,  and  his  original  intention  was  to  write 
a  trilogy  which  should  embody  the  spirit  of  the  French 
Revolution,  as  Wallenstein  had  expressed  that  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War;  but  he  did  not  get  beyond  the  first  drama. 
In  the  Natiirliche  Tochter,  Eugenie's  illegitimate  birth  throws 
a  shadow  on  her  life;  it  excludes  her  from  the  position  to 
which  her  father's  rank  and  her  own  education  entitle  her. 
She  is  placed  at  the  mercy  of  political  intrigue  and  party 
strife,  and  in  the  end  her  life  is  only  saved  by  her  faithful 
Hofmeisterin,  who  secretly  removes  her  from  the  scene  of 
her  trials.  Die  natiirliche  Tochter  was  intended  as  a  pro- 
logue to  the  real  drama  of  the  Revolution,  which  the  poet 
had  in  view;  but  before  he  was  ready  to  write  this  sequel, 
the  Revolution  had  passed  away,  and,  to  some  extent,  Goethe's 
own  antagonism  to  it.  Of  all  his  more  important  works, 
Die  natiirliche  Tochter  is  the  most  difficult  to  understand, 
by  reason  of  its  uncompromising  classicism ;  in  his  striving 
after  complete  objectivity,  Goethe  has  not  even  named  his 
characters ;  the  heroine  alone  is  an  exception,  the  others 
being  simply  "  the  king,"  "  the  duke,"  and  so  on.  In  its 
classical  smoothness  the  drama  has  not  unjustly  been  com- 
pared with  marble;  the  calm  impersonal  tone  of  its  poetry 
is  almost  statuesque.  But  the  comparison  is  only  partially 
true ;  there  is  neither  coldness  nor  want  of  colour  in  the 
Natiirliche  Tochter,  and  the  chief  actors  at  least  are  drawn 
with  clear  if  delicate  lines.  Moreover,  Goethe  was  too  great 
a  poet  to  allow  purely  political  ideas  to  obscure  the  human 
interest  of  the  action. 

Besides  its  reflection   in  the  Natiirliche   Tochter,  Goethe's 
attitude  to  the  French  Revolution  is  to  be  inferred  from  a 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  379 

number  of  minor  writings  from  the  last  decade  of  the  century. 
The  subject  of  Der  Gross-Cophta  (1791),  for  instance,  is  the 
famous  diamond  necklace,  Cagliostro  being  the  hero,  but  both 
it  arid  the  comedy  of  Der  Biirgergeneral  (1793)  are  trivial 
satires  on  the  ideas  of  the  Revolution.  The  unfinished  plays, 
Die  Aufgeregten  (1793)  and  Das  Mddchen  von  Oberkirch 
(1794),  treat  the  political  movement  of  the  age  in  a  more 
serious  spirit,  while  Die  Reise  der  Sohne  Megaprazons,  written 
about  the  same  time,  is  the  fragment  of  a  satirical  novel. 
From  such  works  it  is  clear  that  Goethe  regarded  the  French 
Revolution  neither  as  a  just  retribution  for  the  wrongs  com- 
mitted by  one  class  of  society  against  the  social  order  nor  as 
an  act  of  liberation ;  essentially  an  aristocrat,  he  saw  in  it 
only  the  triumph  of  the  rabble. 

The  most  abstruse  and  enigmatical  of  Goethe's  classical 
poems  is  the  allegorical  tragedy  Pandora  (1810),  which  was  Pandora, 
written  between  1806  and  1809.  This  fragment,  for  it  also  is  l8l°* 
incomplete,  contains,  however,  some  of  Goethe's  finest  poetry. 
In  the  characters  of  Prometheus  and  Epimetheus,  idealist  is 
opposed  to  realist  as,  twenty  years  before,  Tasso  had  been  con- 
trasted with  Antonio,  but  so  intent  is  the  poet  on  enforcing  his 
allegory  that  the  personalities  of  his  characters  are  obliterated. 
The  figures  of  Pandora  are  not  living  personages,  but  merely 
shadowy  personifications  of  ideas.  Pandora  herself  is  Beauty, 
and  she  falls  to  the  lot,  not  of  the  practical  Prometheus,  but 
of  the  idealist  Epimetheus;  Epimetheus,  however,  is  obliged 
to  renounce  his  wild  passion,  and  to  approach  her  in  faith 
and  humility.  Goethe's  classicism  was  not  restricted  to  his 
poetry ;  it  appeared,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  next  chapter,  in 
the  method  in  which  he  directed  the  Weimar  theatre,  and  in 
his  writings  upon  art.  Between  1798  and  1800,  he  published,  Writings 
in  collaboration  with  the  art-historian  Heinrich  Meyer  (17  60-  onart- 
1832),  who,  in  these  years,  was  his  most  intimate  friend,  a 
review,  Die  Propylden,  the  ruling  idea  of  which  was  that  classic 
art,  as  rediscovered  by  Winckelmann,  was  the  only  true  art. 
Goethe's  volume  on  Winckelmann  und  seine  Zeit  (1805)  was 
his  most  immediate  and  personal  stand  against  the  new 
Romantic  principles  which  had  begun  to  revolutionise  paint- 
ing and  sculpture. 

But  all  these  attempts  to  champion  a  dying  aesthetic  prin- 
ciple sink  into  nothing  beside  the  publication  (1808)  in  the 


380  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Faust,  new  edition  of  his  Werke  (12  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1806-1808)  of 
7^7  tne  First  Part  °f  Faust.  We  have  already  considered  this 
1808.'  drama  in  the  first  fragmentary  form  which  Goethe  gave 
it  in  Frankfort,  during  his  period  of  "Sturm  und  Drang." 
We  have  seen,  too,  how,  in  1790,  he  revised  and  published 
the  fragment  with  some  additional  scenes,  and  also  with  some 
unfinished  scenes  omitted.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  Faust 
appeared  as  a  complete  poem ;  since  1800,  moreover,  Goethe 
had  also  been  at  work  on  an  episode — Helena — which  was 
ultimately  to  form  the  poetic  centre  of  the  Second  Part.  The 
First  Part  of  Faust *  benefited  perhaps  to  a  greater  extent  than 
any  other  of  his  works  from  his  friendship  with  Schiller.  It 
might  even  be  said  that  in  these  years  the  idea  of  Faust  as 
a  world-poem,  as  a  tragedy  mirroring  the  life  of  mankind,  first 
took  clear  and  definite  shape.  Faust  ceased  to  be  the  tragedy 
of  a  single  life  and  became  the  Divine  Comedy  of  humanity, 
as  conceived  by  the  eighteenth  century  in  its  highest  imagina- 
ThePro-  tive  flight.  The  charge  is  to  be  seen  at  once  in  the  three 
logues.  introductory  Prologues,  which  place  the  poem  in  an  entirely 
new  perspective.  Each  of  these  poems  is  an  example  of 
Goethe's  art  in  its  purest  form.  The  elegiac  Zueignung, 
through  which  the  past  echoes  and  "  murmurs  with  its  many 
voices,"  binds  Faust  with  the  poet's  youth ;  the  Vorspiel  auf 
dem  Theater — modelled  on  the  prologue  to  the  Indian  drama, 
Sakuntala,  which  G.  Forster  translated  from  the  English  in 
1791 — with  its  unsurpassable  characterisation  of  the  three 
forces  in  all  dramatic  art,  here  represented  by  the  Theatre 
Director,  the  Poet,  and  the  "lustige  Person,"  forms  the  link 
between  the  play  and  the  stage ;  while  the  organ-roll  of  the 
Prolog  im  Himmel  brings  the  poem  into  touch  with  the 
spiritual  problems  of  Goethe's  own  life  and  of  humanity  at 
large.  Thus,  what  was  once  a  puppet  play,  then  a  tragedy  of 
the  "Sturm  und  Drang,"  here  becomes  a  modern  mystery, 
in  which  the  spectator  is  carried  "vom  Himmel  durch  die 
Welt  zu  Holle."  The  Prolog  im  Himmel^  suggested  by  the 
Hebrew  poem  of  Job,  gives  the  key  to  Faust  as  Goethe 
finally  conceived  the  drama.  Mephistopheles  extorts  from 

1  Editions  by  G.  von  Loeper,  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1879,  and  K.  J.  Schroer,  2  vols., 
3rd  and  4th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1896-98.  Of  recent  works  on  Goethe's  Faust  the  most 
important  are  O.  Pniower's  Goethes  Faust,  Zeugnisse  und  Excurse  su  seiner 
Entstehungsqeschichte,  Berlin,  1899,  and  J.  Minors  Goethes  Faust,  Entstehungs- 
geschichte  und  Erkldrung,  2  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1901. 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CElfrURY.  381 

God  the  permission  to  tempt  Faust  from  the  path  of  earnest 
endeavour.  "  Nun  gut,"  says  the  Lord  : — 

' '  Nun  gut,  es  sey  dir  Uberlassen  ! 
Zieh  diesen  Geist  von  seinem  Urquell  ab, 
Und  fuhr'  ihn,  kannst  du  ihn  erfassen, 
Auf  deinem  Wege  mit  herab, 
Und  steh'  beschamt,  wenn  du  bekennen  musst : 
Ein  guter  Mensch  in  seinem  dunkeln  Drange, 
1st  sich  des  rechten  Weges  wohl  bewusst."  * 

The  Mephistopheles  that  makes  the  wager  with  God  is  no 
longer  the  traditional  devil  of  the  Volksbuch,  who  had  been 
sufficient  for  the  poet's  needs  in  his  "Sturm  und  Drang"; 
Mephistopheles  has  now  become  a  spirit  akin  to  the  "Erd- 
geist,"  and  embodies  the  idea  of  negation  in  Goethe's  cos- 
mogony. He  is  "der  Geist,  der  stets  verneint," 

"  ein  Theil  von  jener  Kraft, 
Die  stets  das  Bose  will  und  stets  das  Gute  schafft. " a 

The  first  scene  of  the  drama  plays  in  the  "high-arched, 
narrow,  Gothic  chamber"  of  the  original  play,  and,  until 
after  the  scene  with  Wagner,  the  drama  practically  remains 
as  it  was.  But  when  his  famulus  has  left  Faust,  the  thought 
of  his  own  littleness,  compared  with  the  all-powerful  "Erd- 
geist,"  drives  him  to  despair.  Death  alone  can  solve  all 
problems;  he  takes  down  the  phial  that  will  bring  relief, 
but,  as  the  poison  touches  his  lips,  the  Easter  bells  ring  out 
and  the  angels  sing  of  the  Risen  Christ.  Memories  of 
childhood  rise  before  Faust;  he  puts  the  poison  aside. 

"  Erinnrung  halt  mich  nun  mit  kindlichem  Gefuhle 
Vom  letzten,  ernsten  Schritt  zuriick. 
O  !  tonet  fort  ihr  sttssen  Himmelslieder  ! 
Die  Thrane  quillt,  die  Erde  hat  mich  wieder !  "  * 

And  now  Faust  goes  out  into  the  world;  we  see  him,  accom-  "Vordem 
panied  by  his  famulus,  passing  through  the  crowds  of  happy,  n 
careless  townsfolk  before  the  gates.     Here,  the  life  and  the 
sunshine  bring  home  to  him  the  tragedy  of  his  own  existence 
with  redoubled  force.     How  happy,  beside  him,  is  the  pedantic 
Wagner,  whose  thoughts  do  not  rise  above  his  books. 

1  Prolog  im  Himmel,  11.  323  ff.  (  Werke,  22). 

2  Studirzimmer,  11.  1335  f.,  1338  (I.e.,  14,  67). 

3  Nacht,  11.  781  ff.  (p.  43). 


382  THE   aCHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

"Zwey  Seelen  wohnen,  ach  !  in  meiner  Brust, 
Die  eine  will  sich  von  der  andern  trennen  ; 
Die  eine  halt,  in  derber  Liebeslust, 
Sich  an  die  Welt  mit  klammernden  Organen ; 
Die  andre  hebt  gewaltsam  sich  vom  Dust, 
Zu  den  Gefilden  hoher  Ahnen." l 

The  scene  closes  with  the  appearance  of  the  mysterious  black 
poodle  which  follows  Faust  and  Wagner  home. 

When  we  see  Faust  again,  he  is  in  his  study ;  opening 
the  New  Testament,  he  tries  to  find  the  simple  faith  of  his 
childhood,  but  for  him  the  beginning  is  no  longer  the 
"  Word,"  but  the  "  Deed."  And  now  Mephistopheles,  in  the 
guise  of  a  wandering  scholar,  steps  forth  from  behind  the 
stove;  he  had  been  the  mysterious  poodle  of  the  previous 
scene.  To  ingratiate  himself  with  Faust,  Mephistopheles 
gives  the  latter  a  foretaste  of  his  power  by  conjuring  up 
before  him  a  vision  of  the  joys  of  sense,  for  which  one  of 
"the  two  souls"  within  Faust's  breast  yearns.  Upon  this 
episode  follows  the  magnificent  scene  in  which  Faust  seals  his 
pact  with  Mephistopheles.  Faust,  the  Faust  who,  in  the  bitter- 
ness of  his  despair,  has  cursed  all  that  is  beautiful  in  life, 
destroying,  as  the  spirits  that  hover  over  him,  sing — 

"  Die  schone  Welt     . 
Mit  machtiger  Faust ; 
Sie  stiir/t,  sie  zerfallt ! 
Ein  Halbgott  hat  sie  zerschlagen  ! "  2 

is  now  prepared  for  everything.     Mephistopheles  unfolds  his 
conditions : — 

"  Ich  will  mich  hier  zu  deinem  Dienst  verbinden, 
Auf  deinen  Wink  nicht  rasten  und  nicht  ruhn  ; 
Wenn  wir  uns  drilben  wieder  finden, 
So  sollst  du  mir  das  Gleiche  thun." 

The  pact.  But  the  "  driiben "  troubles  Faust  little :  Mephistopheles 
promises  to  give  him  what  no  man  has  yet  seen;  he  will 
lay  at  his  feet  all  that  the  soul  can  desire — fine  living,  gold, 
women,  honour.  The  one  condition  which  Faust  makes 
is  that  only  when  Mephistopheles  can  satisfy  him,  can  still 
his  yearnings  and  blot  out  his  ambitions,  only  then  will  he 
fall  into  his  tempter's  power. 

1  Vor  dent  Thor,  11.  1112  ff.  (p.  57). 

2  Studirzimmer,  11.  1609  ff.  (p.  78). 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  383 

"  Werd'  ich  beruhigt  je  mich  auf  ein  Faulbett  legen, 
So  sey  es  gleich  um  mich  gethan  ! 
Kannst  du  mich  schmeichelnd  je  beliigen, 
Dass  ich  mir  selbst  gefallen  mag, 
Kannst  du  mich  mil  Genuss  betriigen  : 
Das  sey  fur  mich  der  letzte  Tag  ! 
Die  Wette  biet'  ich  ! 

Mephistopheles.          Top ! 

Faust.  Und  Schlag  auf  Schlag  ! 

Werd'  ich  zum  Augenblicke  sagen  : 
Verweile  doch  !  du  bist  so  schon  ! 
Dann  magst  du  mich  in  Fesseln  schlagen, 
Dann  will  ich  gern  zu  Grunde  gehn  ! 
Dann  mag  die  Todtenglocke  schallen, 
Dann  bist  du  deines  Dienstes  frey, 
Die  Uhr  mag  stehn,  der  Zeiger  fallen, 
Es  sey  die  Zeit  fitr  mich  vorbey  ! " 1 

Thus  Faust's  enjoyment  of  Mephistopheles's  service  is  not, 
as  in  the  older  versions  of  the  story,  limited  to  a  certain 
period  of  years ;  it  depends  wholly  on  the  insatiability  of 
Faust's  nature.  The  pact  is  signed  with  Faust's  blood. 

From  now  on,  the  drama  is  mainly  the  Faust  we  already 
know.  First  comes  the  scene  between  Mephistopheles  and 
the  student,  then  that  in  "  Auerbach's  Keller."  The  "  Hexen- 
kiiche,"  in  which  Faust  drinks  the  potion  which  rejuvenates 
him,  and  awakens  his  earthly  desires,  was  written,  as  we  have 
seen,  at  Rome  in  1788.  The  scenes  where  Gretchen  appears 
were  least  altered  in  the  final  version  of  the  drama;  only 
that  with  Valentin,  which,  in  the  first  sketch,  was  a  mere 
fragment,  is  here  completed.  The  scene  "Wald  und  Hohle," 
where  we  are  shown  the  invigorating  effects  of  the  magic 
potion  on  Faust's  whole  nature,  has  already  been  noticed  as 
the  chief  addition  to  the  first  published  fragment  of  1790. 
In  the  breathless  haste  with  which  the  tragedy  rushes  to 
its  close,  Goethe  saw  the  necessity  of  some  pause  or  break ; 
Mephistopheles  accordingly  makes  one  more  attempt  to  dis- 
tract Faust  and  cause  him  to  forget  Gretchen,  by  plunging 
him  into  the  whirlpool  of  excitement  on  the  Brocken,  where 
the  witches  assemble  on  the  last  night  of  April.  This  is  the 
poetic  justification  of  the  "  Walpurgisnacht."  But,  grandiose  The"Wai- 

as  this  scene  is,  there  is  an  occasional  note  of  cynicism  in   P1"^1.5,", 

*  nacut. 

it,  which  reminds  the  reader  that  Goethe  had  outgrown 
the  unfettered  mood,  the  spirit  of  "Sturm  und  Drang,"  in 

1  Studirximmer,  11.  1656  ff.  and  1692  ff.  (p.  80  ff.) 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


which  he  had  originally  conceived  Faust.  The  satirical  Inter- 
mezzo, Oberons  und  Titanias  goldne  Ifochzeit,  has  no  organic 
connection  with  the  drama,  and  may  be  left  out  of  consider- 
ation. The  tragedy  closes  with  the  three  magnificent  scenes 
of  the  original  play,  "  Truber  Tag,"  "  Nacht,"  and  "  Kerker  "  ; 
here  the  alterations  are  mainly  alterations  in  form,  for  in  the 
earliest  Faust  all  three  scenes  were  in  prose.  But  it  is  also 
possible  to  see  how  Goethe's  naturalism  gave  place  to  a 
higher  spirituality;  the  intensity  of  Gretchen's  tragedy  is 
not  lessened,  but  it  stands  out  from  a  less  actual  back- 
ground. Here,  for  instance,  is  the  close  of  the  drama,  side 
by  side  with  that  of  the  early  Frankfort  version  : — 


URFAUST. 

"Faust.  DerTaggraut.  O  Lieb- 
gen  !  Liebgen  ! 

Margarets.  Tag  !  Es  wird  Tag  ! 
Der  lezte  Tag  !  Der  Hochzeit  Tag  ! 
Sags  niemand  dass  du  die  Nacht 
vorher  bey  Gretgen  warst.  Mein 
Kranzgen  !  Wir  sehn  uns  wieder  ! 
Horst  du  die  Burger  schliirpfen  nur 
liber  die  Gassen  !  Horst  du  !  Kein 
lautes  Wort.  Die  Glocke  ruft ! 
Krack  das  Stabgen  bricht !  Es 
zuckt  in  iedem  Nacken  die  Scharfe 
die  nach  meinem  zuckt !  Die  Glocke 
hor 


Mephistopheks  (erscheinf).  Auf 
oder  ihr  seyd  verlohren,  meine 
Pferde  schaudern,  der  Morgen 
dammert  auf. 


Margarete.  Der  !  der  !  Las  ihn 
schick  ihn  fort !  der  will  mich ! 
Nein !  Nein !  Gericht  Gottes 
kom  iiber  mich,  dein  bin  ich  !  rette 
mich  !  Nimmer  nimmermehr  !  Auf 
ewig  lebe  wohl.  Leb  wohl  Ilein- 
ricti. 


ERSTER  THEIL. 

' '  Faust.    Der  Tag  graut !    Lieb- 
chen  !  Liebchen  ! 

Margarete.  Tag !    Ja  es  wird  Tag ! 

der  letzte  Tag  dringt  herein  ; 
Mein  Hochzeittag  sollt'  es  seyn  ! 
Sag   niemand    dass   du    schon    bey 

Gretchen  warst. 
Weh  meinem  Kranze ! 
Es  ist  eben  geschehn  ! 
Wir  werden  uns  wiedersehn  ; 
Aber  nicht  beym  Tanze. 
Die   Menge  drangt  sich,  man  hdrt 

sie  nicht. 

Der  Platz,  die  Gassen 
Konnen  sie  nicht  fassen. 
Die    Glocke    ruft,    das    Stabchen 

bricht. 

Wie  sie  mich  binden  und  packen  ! 
Zum  Blutstuhl  bin  ich  schon entriickt. 
Schon  zuckt  nach  jedem  Nacken 
Die  Scharfe  die  nach  meinem  ziickt. 
Stumm  liegt  die  Welt  wie  das  Grab  ! 
Faust.  O  war'  ich  nie  geboren  ! 
Mephistopheles(erscheintdraussen). 

Auf !  oder  ihr  seyd  verloren. 
Unniitzes    Zagen !      Zaudern    und 

Plaudern  ! 

Meine  Pferde  schaudern, 
Der  Morgen  dammert  auf. 

Margarete.  Was    steigt   aus   dem 

Boden  herauf  ? 

Der  !  der  !     Schicke  ihn  fort ! 
Was  will  der  an  dem  heiligen  Ort  ? 
Er  will  mich  ! 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  385 

Faust  (sie  umfassend*).  Ich   lasse          Faust.  Du  sollst  leben  . 
clich  nicht ! 

Margarete.  Gericht  Gottes !     dir 

hab'  ich  mich  ubergeben  ! 
Mephistopheles         (zu        Faust). 
Komm  !    komm  !        Ich    lasse 
dich  mit  ihr  im  Stich. 
Margarete.  Dein  bin  ich,  Vater  ! 

Rette  mich  ! 

Margarete.  Ihr  heiligen  Engel  be-  Ihr  Engel !  Ihr  heiligen  Schaaren, 
wahret  meine  Seele — mir  grauts  vor  Lagert  euch  umher,  mich  zu  be- 
dir  Heinrich.  wahren  ! 

Heinrich  !     Mir  grant's  vor  dir. 

Mephistopheles.  Sie  ist  gerichtet !          Mephistopheles.  Sie  ist  gerichtet. 
(£r  verschwindet    mit    Faust,    die 
Thiire  rasse.lt  zu,  man  hort  verhal- 
lend. )     Heinrich  !     Heinrich. 

Stimme  (von  oben).  Ist  gerettet ! 
Mephistopheles    (zu    Faust).   Her 
zu  mir  ! 

[verschwindet  mit  Faust. 
Stimme  (von  innen,  verh attend). 
Heinrich  !  Heinrich  ! " J 

In  no  other  of  his  books  has  Goethe  made  so  open  a  con- 
fession as  in  Faust ;  every  crisis  and  every  epoch  in  his  event- 
ful life  have  left  their  marks  upon  it ;  of  all  his  works,  it  con- 
tains most  of  himself.  "  Die  bedeutende  Puppenspielfabel," 
he  wrote  in  his  autobiography  in  1811  or  i8i2,2  "  klang  und 
summte  gar  vieltonig  in  mir  wieder.  Auch  ich  hatte  mich 
in  allem  Wissen  umhergetrieben  und  war  friih  genug  auf  die 
Eitelkeit  desselben  hingewiesen  worden.  Ich  hatte  es  auch 
im  Leben  auf  allerley  Weise  versucht,  und  war  immer  unbe- 
friedigter  und  gequalter  zuriickgekommen."  The  "  marionette- 
fable  "  haunted  him  all  his  life ;  in  Leipzig  and  Strassburg,  it 
was  blended  with  his  experiences  as  a  student ;  he  made  it  a 
vehicle  for  his  longings  and  ambitions,  his  studies  and  his 
passions ;  at  a  later  date,  his  enthusiasm  for  classic  antiquity 
was  reflected  in  it,  and,  as  we  shall  see  in  a  subsequent 
chapter,  his  scientific  and  political  interests  found  a  niche  in 
the  Second  Part.  Thus,  throughout  his  whole  life,  Faust 
never  ceased  for  long  to  engage  Goethe's  attention,  and  it  is, 
beyond  question,  his  most  universal  and  most  grandly  con- 
ceived work.  In  both  Iphigenie  auf  Tauris  and  Hermann 
und  Dorothea,  he  has  created  artistically  more  perfect  poems, 

1  Werke,  14,  237  f. ,  and  39,  318  f. 

2  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  10  (  Wtrke,  27),  321. 

2  B 


386  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

but  neither  of  these  can  vie  with  Faust  in  wealth  of  pregnant 
thoughts  and  width  of  issue.  All  that  was  best  in  the  move- 
ment of  ideas  in  the  eighteenth  century — its  scepticism,  its 
humanitarianism,  its  longings  —  has  here  crystallised  into 
poetic  form.  Faust  is  the  culmination  of  the  movement  in 
the  midst  of  which  the  best  part  of  Goethe's  life  was  passed, 
and  it  is  thus  fit  that  it  should  close  our  discussion  of  him 
as  a  poet  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


387 


CHAPTER   XIII. 
SCHILLER'S    LAST    DRAMAS. 

THE  classic  idealism  of  Goethe  and  Schiller  is  also  to  be  seen 
in  the  repertory  of  the  Weimar  theatre  at  the  turn  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  Even  in  the  early  years 
of  Goethe's  directorship x — the  theatre  was  controlled  by  him  The 
from  May,  1791  to  1817 — he  gave  no  encouragement  to  the  -Weimar 
crass  naturalism  which,  as  an  inheritance  of  the  "  Sturm  und  theatre. 
Drang,"  still  pervaded  the  German  stage  and  German  acting 
in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  art  of 
speaking  verse  was  little  cultivated,  and  dramas  in  verse  were 
not  popular.  The  production  of  Wallenstein,  the  first  practical 
realisation  of  Goethe's  aims  as  director,  changed  all  this,  and 
paved  the  way  for  adequate  representations  of  Iphigenie  and 
Tasso,  Goethe,  however,  did  not  rest  content  with  having 
thus  established  verse  on  the  German  stage ;  he  went  further, 
and  attempted  to  model  the  theatre  on  antique  lines.  He 
schooled  his  actors  in  plastic  movements,  classic  dramas  were 
revived,  and  he  himself  translated  Voltaire's  Mahomet  (1802) 
and  Tancred  (1802),  both  of  which  tragedies  gave  the  per- 
formers an  opportunity  of  practising  declamation.  And  in 
all  this  he  had  the  hearty  sympathy  of  Schiller,  whose  Braut 
von  Messina  was,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  a  close  imitation 
of  Greek  tragedy.  These  efforts  to  remodel  the  modern 
theatre  on  classical  lines  naturally  met  with  little  enough 
favour,  even  in  Weimar  itself;  but  Goethe  had  the  support 
of  the  Court.  The  future  of  the  German  theatre,  it  is  true, 

1  Cp.  E.  Pasqu£,  Goethes  Thtattrleitttng  in  Weimar,  a  vols.,  Leipzig,  1863; 
C.  A.  H.  Burkhardt,  Das  Repertoire  ties  \Veimarhchen  Theaters  unter  Goelhes 
Leitung,  Hamburg,  1891. 


388  THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

did  not  at  this  time  lie  in  a  slavish  imitation  of  the  antique, 
any  more  than  under  Gottsched  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
century ;  but  the  ideals  which  Goethe  and  Schiller  kept  con- 
stantly before  their  public  held  the  balance  against  the  senti- 
mentalism  and  impressionism  of  the  plays  of  ordinary  life, 
to  which  Iffland  had  given  so  great  a  vogue. 

These  high  aims,  notwithstanding  the  taste  of  the  public, 
could  not  wholly  be  ignored,  with  the  result  that  the  dramatist 
who  stood  highest  in  favour  on  the  Weimar  stage  at  this  time 
A.  von         was  August  F.  F.  von  Kotzebue,1  no  less  than  eighty-eight 
Kfitzea"e>     °^  ^s  plays  being  included  in  the  repertory.     Kotzebue  was 
himself  a  native  of  Weimar.     He  was  born  on  May  7,  1761, 
and    educated  for  a  diplomatic  career.      In    1781,   he  was 
sent  to  St  Petersburg,  where  he  rose  to  an  important  posi- 
tion.    He  began  by  writing  novels,  but  after  the  phenomenal 
Menschen-    success  of  the  five-act  drama,  Menschenhass  und  Reue  (1789), 
hassvnd      ne  wrote  almost  exclusively  for  the  theatre.     It  is  no  ex- 

Reue.  1789.  .  i         /•  •,*-         i       i  ,n 

aggeration  to  say  that  for  twenty  years  Menschenhass  und  Reue 
— in  England,  it  was  familiar  under  the  title,  The  Stranger — 
was  the  most  popular  play  not  only  in  Germany,  but  in  Europe. 
As  a  consequence  of  the  imitation  of  later  dramatists,  the 
motives  and  effects  of  this  play  have  become  so  threadbare 
that  it  is  no  longer  playable ;  but  if  we  will  form  a  fair  estimate 
of  its  merits,  we  must  remember  that  the  technique  which  won 
Other  for  it  its  extraordinary  success  was  then  entirely  new.  Men- 

Plays-  schenhass  und  Reue  was  followed  by  Die  Indianer  in  England 

(1789),  Die  Sonnen-Jungfrau  (1789),  and  Das  Kind  der  Liebe 
(1790).  To  a  later  period  belong  Graf  Benjowsky  (1794), 
Die  Spanier  in  Peru,  oder  Rollrfs  Tod  (1795) — the  best  of 
Kotzebue's  romantic  tragedies  —  and  La  Peyrouse  (1797). 
The  play  which  longest  maintained  its  hold  on  the  German 
stage,  Die  deutschen  Kleinstadter,  did  not  appear  until  1803. 
In  1797,  Kotzebue  was  appointed  dramatic  adviser  to  the 
Viennese  Burgtheater,  but  he  remained  in  Vienna  only  for  a 
couple  of  years.  His  next  experiences  were  of  an  adven- 
turous nature ;  he  returned  to  Russia,  became  politically  im- 
plicated, and  spent  four  months  as  an  exile  in  Siberia.  In 
1 80 1,  to  the  discomfiture  of  both  Goethe  and  Schiller,  he 

1  Auswahl  dramatischer  Werkt,  10  vols.,  Leipzig,  1867-68.  Cp.  A.  Hauffen, 
Das  Drama  der  klassisc ken  Periode,  2  (D.N.L. ,  139,  2  [1891]),  2  if.  ;  also  C. 
Rabany,  Kotxebue,  sa  vie  et  son  temps,  Paris,  1893. 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  389 

again  settled  in  Weimar,  but  three  years  later  exchanged 
Weimar  for  Berlin.  He  was  assassinated  in  1819,  by  a 
student  named  Sand,  who  shared  the  opinion  then  current, 
especially  in  academic  circles,  that  Kotzebue  was  acting  as 
a  spy  on  behalf  of  the  Czar.  This  incident,  leading  as  it 
did  to  the  suppression  of  student  clubs  at  the  universities, 
had  far-reaching  political  consequences. 

Kotzebue  is  one  of  the  despised  figures  of  literature,  the 
tasteless  egotism  of  his  biographical  writings  being  largely 
responsible  for  the  judgment  passed  on  him  by  posterity. 
The  higher  ideals  of  poetry  he  held  in  cynical  contempt,  and 
it  is  impossible  to  measure  his  work  by  any  serious  standard ; 
his  theatrical  effects  are  often  crude  and  indefensible,  but  the 
favour  which  the  public  showed  him  was  not  wholly  unde- 
served. When  the  worst  has  been  said  of  Kotzebue,  he 
remains  one  of  the  most  fertile  and  ingenious  writers  for  the 
theatre  that  ever  lived ;  and  he  has  influenced,  as  no  other 
playwright,  the  entire  development  of  the  drama  down  to  the 
present  day.  Indeed,  in  the  evolution  of  modern  dramatic 
technique,  his  work  was  even  a  more  important  factor  than 
that  of  Scribe,  a  generation  later. 

The  Ducal  theatre  in  Weimar  owes  its  importance  for  the 
history  of  German  literature  to  the  fact  that  Schiller's  master- 
works  were  produced  there  under  the  author's  guidance  and 
superintendence.  In  Wallenstein  Schiller  had  found,  as  we  Schiller's 
have  seen,  the  kind  of  work  he  was  best  fitted  to  do,  and  this  jf51 
tragedy  was  hardly  out  of  his  hands  before  he  had  begun  a 
fresh  one.  Of  all  his  dramas,  Maria  Stuart,  which  was  written  Maria 
in  1799  and  the  first  half  of  1800,  is  the  most  widely  popular ; 
no  other  has  been  played  so  often  on  foreign  stages.  The 
chief  reason  undoubtedly  is  that  Schiller  has  set  himself  the 
task  of  painting  in  sympathetic  colours  a  beautiful  and  unfor- 
tunate woman.  But  Maria  Stuart  is  also  in  other  respects 
an  effective  tragedy  :  his  study  of  the  antique  had  taught 
Schiller  the  power  of  irony  as  a  dramatic  motive,  as  well  as 
the  advantage  of  simplicity  and  compactness  in  constructing  a 
plot.  In  style  and  method,  however,  this  drama  has  too  much 
in  common  with  the  sentimental  "  biirgerliche  Tragddie"  to 
take  high  rank  among  the  poet's  works.  Unlike  Wallenstein, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  a  convincing  political  tragedy, 
Maria  Stuart  has  virtually  no  political  background ;  in  point 


390  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

of  fact,  Schiller  was  only  indifferently  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  the  period  in  which  his  tragedy  plays.  This  lack 
of  historical  or  political  ballast  is  the  most  serious  defect  of 
Maria  Stuart.  Elizabeth  stands  in  shadow,  Mary  in  light, 
and  the  latter  falls  a  victim  to  the  envy  of  her  rival. 
The  two  queens  meet  in  the  garden  of  Fotheringay  Castle, 
in  a  scene  which  forms  the  climax  of  the  drama,  but  they 
meet  neither  as  the  representatives  of  national  forces,  nor — as 
in  the  similar  situation  in  the  Nibelungenlied,  where  Kriemhild 
and  Brunhild  are  brought  face  to  face — as  types  of  queenly 
scorn  and  queenly  hate.  The  Queen  of  England  appears 
as  a  jealous  shrew  and  Mary  Stuart  as  a  sentimental  heroine. 
The  entire  drama  plays  at  Fotheringay  Castle  on  the  last 
three  days  of  Mary's  life ;  she  is  condemned  before  it  begins, 
and  it  closes  with  her  execution.  The  long,  final  act,  in 
which  she  receives  the  consolations  of  her  religion,  and  takes 
farewell  of  her  women,  is  harrowing  rather  than  tragic  ;  for  the 
reader  has  the  feeling,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  poet's  accentua- 
tion of  Mary's  early  sins,  that  she  has  no  guilt  upon  her  soul 
to  expiate ;  her  death  is,  in  the  economy  of  the  drama,  an 
accident,  not  a  necessity. 

Die  Jung-         Die  Jungfrau   von    Orleans   (1801),    with    which    Schiller 
frau  von       entered   that  magic  circle  of  poetic   medievalism  which   the 

Orleans,  .  ,  •       •  •  TI 

1801.  Romantic  movement  was  at  this  time  opening  up  to  European 

literature,  is  in  every  respect  a  finer  work.  Jeanne  d'Arc,  a 
peasant  girl  of  the  village  of  Dom  Remy,  has  prayed  to  the 
Virgin  to  save  her  land  from  the  English,  and  the  Virgin  has 
appeared  to  her  in  her  sleep,  bearing  a  sword  and  a  banner. 
"  Ich  bin's,"  she  says  to  her — 

"  '  Ich  bin's.     Steh  auf,  Johanna.     Lass  die  Heerde. 
Dich  ruft  der  Herr  zu  einem  anderen  Geschaft ! 
Nimm  diese  Fahne  !     Dieses  Schwert  umgiirte  dir  ! 
Damit  vertilge  meines  Volkes  Feinde, 
Und  ftihre  deines  Herren  Sohn  nach  Rheims, 
Und  kron'  ihn  mit  der  koniglichen  Krone  ! ' 
Ich  aber  sprach  :  Wie  kann  ich  solcher  That 
Mich  unterwinden,  eine  zarte  Magri, 
Unkundig  des  verderblichen  Gefechts  ! 
Und  sie  versetzte  :  '  Eine  reine  Jungfrau 
Vollbringt  jedwedes  Herrliche  auf  Erden, 
Wenn  sie  der  ird'schen  Liebe  widersteht. 
Sieh  mich  an  !     Eine  keusche  Magd,  wie  du, 
Hab'  ich  den  Herrn,  den  gottlichen,  gebohren, 
Und  gbttlich  bin  ich  selbst  !'     Und  sie  beriihrte 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  39! 

Mein  Augenlied,  und  als  ich  aufwarts  sah, 
Da  war  der  Himmel  voll  von  Engelknaben, 
Die  trugen  weisse  Lilien  in  der  Hand, 
Und  siisser  Ton  verschwebte  in  den  Lliften."1 

Johanna  leaves  her  home  for  the  Court  of  the  Dauphin  at 
Chinon,  where  she  wins  credence  for  her  story.  Clothed  in 
armour,  a  sword  in  one  hand  and  a  banner  in  the  other,  she 
goes  out  into  battle,  carries  all  before  her,  and  puts  the 
enemy  to  flight :  the  English  are  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of 
Orleans,  and  Charles  VII.  is  crowned  at  Rheims.  So  far 
Schiller  followed  history,  or  the  story  that  long  passed  for 
authentic.  According  to  further  traditions,  Jeanne  subse- 
quently fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  and  was  burned 
by  them  as  a  witch  in  1431.  But,  with  a  fine  insight  into 
the  dramatic  possibilities  of  the  theme,  Schiller  has  brought 
his  heroine's  fate  into  relation  with  her  divine  mission ;  he 
has  made  her  power  depend  on  her  renunciation  of  earthly 
love.  She  rejects,  it  is  true,  the  offers  of  marriage  made 
to  her  by  the  French  commanders  Dunois  and  Lahire,  but 
when  she  overcomes  in  single-handed  combat  the  young 
English  commander,  Lionel,  her  heart  softens  towards  him. 
The  sword  which  she  has  raised  to  slay  him  falls  from  her 
hand ;  her  vow  is  broken.  And  when  her  father  accuses 
her  before  the  Cathedral  in  Rheims  of  being  in  league  with 
the  powers  of  hell,  when  the  roll  of  the  thunder  implies 
that  Heaven  sanctions  his  accusation,  Johanna  is  filled  with 
the  sense  of  her  own  guilt  and  answers  nothing.  It  is 
almost  a  relief  to  her  to  feel  that  her  mission  has  been  taken 
from  her.  Falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  she  is 
ready  to  atone  for  her  broken  vow  by  death ;  but  Lionel, 
the  man  who  has  destroyed  her  power,  protects  her,  and 
craves  her  love.  Johanna's  only  thought,  however,  is  to  save 
her  country.  As  the  battle  waxes  fiercer  and  the  French 
are  being  driven  back,  she  sinks  on  her  knees  in  passionate 
prayer  to  God  to  break  her  fetters,  in  order  that  she  may 
once  more  rescue  her  king ;  her  prayer  is  answered,  she  seizes 
a  sword  and  throws  herself  into  the  thick  of  the  fray.  The 
fortune  of  battle  changes  and  France  is  saved ;  Johanna, 
the  saviour  of  her  people,  dies  with  the  rosy  light  from 
heaven  upon  her  face,  the  Virgin  beckoning  her  from  amidst 

1  Act  i,  sc.  10  (  Werke,  13,  217  ff.) 


392  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

the  angels.     With   her   last   words,   "  Kurz  ist   der  Schmerz, 
und  ewig  ist  die  Freude ! "  the  drama  closes. 
Die  Jung-         Schiller  described  Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans  as  a  "  Roman- 

^Oriea.™  l'c  tra&ecty>"  an<^»  to  f°rm  a  just  estimate  of  the  work,  the 
a  Romantic  reader  must  place  himself  at  the  standpoint  of  the  poet's  con- 
tragedy,  temporaries ;  Schiller's  drama  is  to  be  compared,  not  with 
his  Wallenstein,  but  with  Ludwig  Tieck's  Romantic  play,  Geno- 
veva,  which  appeared  in  the  preceding  year.  The  spectral 
knight  who  warns  the  Maid  of  her  fate,  and  the  thunder  of 
the  scene  before  the  Cathedral,  are  theatrical  coups  which 
belong  rather  to  a  Romantic  opera  than  a  classic  tragedy ; 
the  Virgin  and  her  angels,  who  reveal  to  Johanna  her  divine 
mission,  and,  when  she  dies,  receive  her  at  the  gates  of 
Heaven,  now  seem  little  more  than  decorative  accessories. 
But  such  supernatural  visions  were  in  perfect  harmony  with 
the  spirit  and  beliefs  of  medieval  Christianity,  which  the 
Romanticists  had  resuscitated  in  their  art  and  literature.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  defects  of  the  tragedy  are  due  to  Schiller's 
want  of  sympathy  with  the  Romantic  spirit ;  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  him  to  be  Romantic  and  nothing  more ;  he  en- 
deavoured to  reconcile  the  medieval  conceptions  of  life  and 
religion,  of  duty  and  guilt,  with  those  of  his  own  century. 
His  Maid  of  Orleans  is  never,  as  the  Romantic  poets  would 
have  drawn  her,  a  naive  child  of  the  fifteenth  century ;  and, 
in  the  course  of  the  drama,  she  undergoes  a  process  of  moral 
regeneration  which  could  only  have  been  possible  in  the  poet's 
own  time.  Romantic  medievalism  and  eighteenth-century  en- 
lightenment thus  form  two  irreconcilable  elements  which  have 
made  it  difficult  for  modern  criticism  to  appreciate  at  their 
true  worth  the  wealth  of  poetry  and  the  dramatic  beauties 
that  the  play  contains. 

More  than  a  year  elapsed  after  the  completion  of  Die 
Jungfrau  von  Orleans  before  Schiller  began  his  next  drama, 
Die  Braut  von  Messina.  But  he  was  by  no  means  idle ;  one 
plan  after  another  was  sketched  out  and  thrown  aside.  In 
each  successive  drama,  he  found  it  more  difficult  to  satisfy 
his  ideal  of  a  tragic  conflict ;  and  it  is  obvious  from  the  un- 
finished fragments  of  this  period  that  the  Greek  conception 
of  Fate,  as  a  tragic  motive,  was  uppermost  in  his  mind. 
Schiller  felt  that  in  one  tragedy,  at  least,  he  must  meet  the 
ancients  on  their  own  ground.  Between  Maria  Stuart  and 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY. 


393 


Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans,  he  had  translated  Macbeth  (1801);   Macbeth, 
in  the  winter  of  1801-2,  the  only  work  he  completed  was  a   l8oi> 
version  of  Gozzi's  comedy,  Turandot  ;  but  in  August,  1802,    Turandot, 
with  Sophocles'  (Edipus  as  his  model,  he  began  to  write  Die  I8o2>  * 
Braut  von  Messina,   the  plan   of  which   had  occupied   him 
several  years  previously,  as  Die  feindlichen  Briider. 

Die  Braut  von  Messina  oder  die  feindlichen  Briider  stands  Die  Braut 
in  the  same  relation  to  Schiller's  earlier  poetry  as  the  Achilleis  ™£  Me3' 
or  Pandora  to  Goethe's  ;  in  other  words,  it  is  the  culmination  1803. 
of  his  classical  tendencies.  Die  Braut  von  Messina  is,  more- 
over, the  most  successful  imitation  of  the  antique  that  we  owe 
to  either  poet.  The  plot  of  the  drama  is  briefly  as  follows. 
A  medieval  Prince  of  Messina  has  a  dream  in  which  he  sees 
a  lily  growing  up  between  two  laurel  trees  ;  suddenly  the 
lily  changes  to  fire  and  destroys  everything  around  it.  An 
Arabian  gives  an  interpretation  of  this  dream  :  the  two 
laurels  are  the  Prince's  sons,  Caesar  and  Manuel  ;  the  lily  is 
a  daughter  yet  unborn,  who  will  cause  the  death  of  them  both. 
A  daughter  is,  in  fact,  subsequently  born,  and  the  Prince  com- 
mands her  to  be  thrown  into  the  sea;  but  her  mother, 
Isabella,  trusting  also  to  a  dream,  upon  which  a  monk  has 
placed  a  more  favourable  interpretation,  has  the  child  secretly 
conveyed  to  a  monastery  and  there  brought  up.  Years  pass, 
the  father  dies,  and  the  two  sons  are  at  enmity  with  each 
other.  When  the  drama  opens,  Isabella  believes  the  time 
has  come  to  test  the  monk's  prediction  that  her  daughter  — 

"  der  Sohne  streitende  Gemuther 
In  heisser  Liebesglut  vereinen  wiirde." 

She  tells  her  sons  the  secret  of  their  sister's  existence,  and 
learns  from  them  that  they  have  each  chosen  a  bride.  But 
Isabella's  happiness  is  short-lived.  Her  daughter  Beatrice 
has  been  carried  away  from  the  convent  ;  and  this  news  is 
followed  by  the  terrible  discovery  that  both  sons  love  the 
same  woman,  and  that  that  woman  is  Beatrice.  In  blind 
jealousy,  Don  Caesar  kills  Don  Manuel,  and,  when  he  learns 
that  Beatrice  is  his  sister,  stabs  himself. 

"  Wie  die  Seher  verkiindet,  so  ist  es  gekommen. 

Denn  noch  niemand  entfloh  dem  verhangten  Geschick. 
Und  wer  sich  vermisst,  es  kliiglich  zu  wenden, 
Der  muss  es  selher  erbauend  vollenden." 


394  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

The  central  figure  of  the  tragedy  is  the  mother,  Isabella,  a 
figure  endowed  with  the  antique  dignity  of  a  Medea.  At  the 
same  time,  Schiller's  heroine  is  less  statuesque  than  the 
heroines  of  antiquity ;  where  the  Greeks  modelled,  he,  as  a 
modern  "sentimental"  poet,  describes.  Consequently,  the 
tragedy  of  Isabella's  life  is  more  vivid  and  moving  than  that 
of  a  locasta  or  Klytemnestra ;  it  is  not  so  simple.  There  is 
a  tone  bitterer  than  is  to  be  found  even  in  Euripides,  in  the 
wild  mockery  of  Isabella's  words  : — 

"  Was  kiimmerts  Mich  noch,  oh  die  Gotter  sich 
Als  Lugner  zeigen  ocler  sich  als  wahr 
Bestatigen  ?     Mir  habcn  sie  das  Argste 
Gethan — Trotz  biet  ich  ihnen,  mich  noch  hatter 
Zu  treffen,  als  sie  trafen.  .  .   . 

Alles  diess 

Erleid  ich  schuldlos  ;  doch  bey  Ehren  bleiben 
Die  Orakel,  und  gerettet  sind  die  Gotter."  1 

Die  Braut  von  Messina  is  not  divided  into  acts,  and  a  com- 
mentary is  provided  to  the  action  by  a  chorus,  the  introduction 
of  which  Schiller  defended  in  a  preface  to  the  first  edition  of 
the  play.  This  adoption  of  a  convention  no  longer  appli- 
cable to  the  modern  theatre  is  without  technical  justification, 
and,  more  than  anything  else,  has  militated  against  the  success 
of  Die  Braut  von  Messina  as  an  acting-play.  But  the  poet 
had  here  an  opportunity,  as  in  none  of  his  other  dramas, 
of  giving  expression  to  the  lyric  and  reflective  vein  in  his 
nature.  One  element,  however,  in  the  tragedy  of  the  Greeks 
it  lay  beyond  Schiller's  power  to  reproduce ;  in  vain  do  we 
seek  the  serenity  of  ^Eschylus  or  Sophocles  in  Die  Braut  von 
Messina.  The  calm  decrees  of  an  antique  Fate  become,  when 
set  in  the  medieval  framework  of  Schiller's  play,  merely  the 
caprices  of  an  evil  power ;  they  rest  upon  the  spectator  like  a 
nightmare.  In  other  words,  the  day  has  gone  by  when  it  was 
possible  to  believe  in  destiny,  as  the  Greeks  conceived  it,  and 
Schiller  fails  to  convince  us  that  he  himself  believed  in  it 
This  is  the  source  of  weakness  in  Die  Braut  von  Messina,  as 
well  as  in  the  so-called  "  Schicksalstragodie,"  which,  as  we 
shall  see  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  arose  as  an  imitation  of 
that  drama.  The  idea  of  fate  savours  too  much  of  a  supersti- 
tion to  be  made  the  chief  motive  of  a  modern  tragedy. 

Both  Goethe  and  Schiller  felt  that  the  stage  had  received 

1  Werke,  14,  65,  and  114. 


CHAP.  XIII.J        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  395 

a  consecration  from  the  representation  of  Die  Braut  von 
Messina.  But  hardly  a  year  after  its  first  performance  we 
find  Schiller  writing  to  Goethe  (Feb.  8,  1804),  "mit  den 
griechischen  Dingen  ist  es  eben  eine  missliche  Sache  auf 
unserm  Theater."1  By  this  time,  however,  Wilhelm  Tell 
was  finished,  and  on  March  17,  1804,  it  was  performed  amidst  T^> 
jubilation  in  Weimar.  The  struggle  of  the  three  Forest 
Cantons  of  Swtizerland  —  Schwyz,  Uri,  and  Unterwalden — 
against  the  supremacy  of  the  House  of  Austria  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  forms  the  historical 
background  of  this  drama.  Schiller  had  found  the  facts  in 
a  Swiss  chronicle  of  the  sixteenth  century  by  ^Egidius 
Tschudi,  who  also  relates  the  mythical  story  of  the  national 
hero,  Wilhelm  Tell.  For  an  act  of  insubordination  towards 
the  Austrian  Landvogt,  Hermann  Gessler,  Tell  is  condemned 
by  the  latter  to  shoot  an  apple  from  his  son's  head  in  the 
market-place  of  Altdorf.  The  arrow  divides  the  apple,  and 
the  child  is  saved.  The  Vogt,  however,  has  seen  Tell  conceal 
a  second  arrow  in  his  jerkin,  and  the  latter  fearlessly  confesses 
the  object  of  this  arrow,  had  the  first  killed  his  child.  He  is 
put  in  chains  and  carried  by  boat  to  Kiissnacht ;  on  the  way, 
a  storm  arises,  and  Tell  is  freed  in  order  that  he  may  guide 
the  boat ;  he  steers  it  near  the  shore,  springs  on  land,  and 
leaves  the  occupants  of  the  boat  to  their  fate.  Gessler 
escapes  the  dangers  of  the  storm  only,  however,  to  fall  by 
Tell's  arrow  in  the  "hollow  way"  near  Kiissnacht. 

Schiller  is  hardly  to  be  blamed  for  treating  this  theme  with  Epic 
an  epic  breadth  which  he  had  not  hitherto — even  in  Wallen- 
stein — allowed  himself.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  whole  story 
as  it  is  set  forth  by  Tschudi,  and  as  Goethe  had  realised  some 
years  before,  demands  epic  rather  than  dramatic  treatment. 
Schiller's  intention  was  here  to  bring  before  the  spectator  a 
whole  nation  in  its  struggle  for  independence ;  and  on  this 
basis,  the  unity  of  the  work  rests.  Had  the  personal  history 
of  Tell  been  the  central  theme  of  the  tragedy,  as  that  of  the 
Maid  of  Orleans  in  the  earlier  drama,  the  representatives 
of  the  old  Swiss  nobility,  such  as  the  Freiherr  von  Atting- 
hausen,  his  nephew  Ulrich  von  Rudenz,  who  is  won  over 
from  the  Austrian  party  by  his  fiancee,  Bertha  von  Bruneck, 
would  have  been  mere  excrescences  on  the  plot.  In  the  same 

1  Brief  wee hsel  gwischen  Schiller  und  Goethe,  4th  ed.,  a,  363. 


396  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

way,  the  famous  scene  upon  the  Riitli,  where  the  Swiss  make 
a  covenant  to  rise  against  their  oppressors,  has  little  to  do 
with  Tell's  personal  fate.  Even  Tell  himself  is  rather  the  per- 
sonification of  the  national  spirit  of  revolt  than  a  hero  acting 
with  perfect  freedom  of  will ;  it  is,  for  instance,  not  a  heroic 
action  to  kill  an  enemy  from  behind  an  ambush.  But  Schiller 
did  not  intend  Tell  to  be  regarded  as  a  hero  of  the  ordinary 
type;  he  is  the  spokesman  of  his  nation  and  the  leader  of 
a  just  revolt. 

"  Ich  lebte  still  und  harmlos — Das  Geschoss 
War  auf  des  Waldes  Thiere  nur  gerichtet, 
Meine  Gedanken  waren  rein  von  Mord — 
Du  hast  aus  meinem  Frieden  mich  heraus 
Geschreckt,  in  gahrend  Drachengift  hast  du 
Die  Milch  der  frommen  Denkart  mir  verwandelt, 
Zum  Ungeheuren  hast  du  mich  gewdhnt — 
Wer  sich  des  Kindes  Haupt  zum  Ziele  sezte, 
Der  kann  auch  treffen  in  das  Herz  des  Feinds. 

Die  armen  Kindlein,  die  unschuldigen, 
Das  treue  Weib  muss  ich  vor  deiner  Wuth 
Beschiitzen,  Landvogt ! " 1 

Thus  the  fact  that,  not  Tell,  but  the  Swiss  nation,  is  the  hero 
of  the  drama  justifies  to  some  extent  its  loose  construction. 
In  Wallenstein,  Schiller  had  also  introduced  a  whole  people 
or,  at  least,  a  representative  class,  but  even  in  Wallensteins 
Lager  he  had  only  employed  strictly  dramatic  means.  The 
greater  breadth  and  detail  of  the  picture  which  he  attempted 
to  draw  in  Wilhelm  Tell,  made  it  necessary  to  have  recourse 
to  epic  and  even  lyric  elements,  as  in  the  opening  scene  and 
at  the  close  of  the  fourth  act.  This,  too,  explains  the  least 
successful  scene  in  the  drama,  that  of  the  fifth  act.  But,  after 
all,  Schiller  did  not  overcome  the  difficulty  of  blending  Tell's 
personal  fate  with  that  of  his  country ;  he  felt  it  necessary  to 
accentuate  the  impersonal  character  of  Gessler's  murder,  by 
introducing  Duke  Johann  von  Swabia,  the  murderer  of  the 
Austrian  Emperor.  Tell  turns  the  parricide  from  the  door, 
indignant  that  a  murderer  should  seek  shelter  from  him. 

"  Unglucklicher ! 

Darfst  du  der  Ehrsucht  blut'ge  Schuld  vermengen 
Mil  der  gerechten  Nothwehr  eines  Vaters? 
Hast  du  der  Kinder  liebes  Haupt  vertheidigt  ? 


1  Act  4,  sc.  3  (  Werke,  14,  389). 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  397 

Des  Herdes  Heiligthum  beschiitzt  ?    Das  Schrecklichste 

Das  I.etzte  von  den  Deinen  abgewehrt? 

— Zum  Himmel  heb'  ich  meine  reinen  Hande, 

Verfluche  dich  und  deine  That — Geracht 

Hab'  ich  die  heilige  Natur,  die  du 

Geschandet — Nichts  theil'  ich  mit  dir — Gemordet 

Hast  du,  ich  hab'  mein  Theuerstes  vertheidigt."1 

The  final  act  is  unquestionably  inferior  to  the  rest  of  the 
drama,  not  merely  because  it  lacks  all  organic  connection 
with  the  plot,  but  because  it  forms  an  anti  -  climax,  and 
weakens  the  impression  of  the  whole. 

Wilhelm  Tell  was  the  last  drama  which  it  was  given  to 
Schiller  to  complete.  In  the  early  summer  of  1803,  before  Transia- 
beginning  this  tragedy,  he  had  translated  two  French  comedies  tions- 
by  L.  B.  Picard  under  the  titles  Der  Parasit  and  Der  Neffe  ah 
Onkel;  and  in  the  course  of  1804,  he  was  more  fertile  in  new 
plans  than  ever.  A  graceful  "  Festspiel,"  Die  Huldigung  der 
Kiinste,  and  a  translation  of  Racine's  Phedre  (Phadrd)  fall  in 
the  winter  of  1804-5  ;  not  until  January,  1805,  did  he  decide 
to  make  the  history  of  the  Russian  pretender,  Demetrius,  the 
subject  of  his  next  tragedy.  But  Demetrius  2  remains  a  torso  Demetrius, 
of  hardly  two  acts,  which  later  hands  have  laboured  in  vain  l8°5- 
to  finish.  This  fragment  is  certainly  inferior  to  nothing 
Schiller  had  yet  written,  and  it  is  even  possible  that  the  com- 
pleted tragedy  would  have  solved  the  problem  which  had 
engrossed  his  attention  since  Wallenstein — the  reconciliation 
of  antique  tragedy  with  the  modern  tragedy  of  character. 
Schiller's  last  works  were  contemporary  with  the  beginning 
of  the  Romantic  movement,  but  before  the  poet's  death  that 
movement  had  not  materially  influenced  the  drama.  The 
early  attempts  of  both  Werner  and  Kleist,  it  is  true,  had 
been  played  in  1803,  but  neither  of  these  writers  became  a 
recognised  force  in  German  literature  until  several  years  later ; 
and  Grillparzer,  the  representative  dramatist  of  the  succeeding 
epoch,  was  not  known  until  1817.  Thus  Schiller's  work, 
from  Maria  Stuart  to  Tell,  might  be  said  to  stand  between 
the  dramatic  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century — to  which 
it  bears  most  affinity — and  that  of  the  nineteenth. 

Of  the  last  five  years  of  Schiller's  life,  which  were  a  constant 

1  Act  5,  sc.  2  (  Werke,  14,  420). 

*  Cp.  G.  Kettner,  Schillers  Demetrius,  nach  den  Handschriften  des  Goetke- 
ttnd  Schiller- Archivs,  Weimar,  1894. 


398  THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

battle  against  ill-health,  there  is  little  to  relate.     At  the  end 

of  1799,  he  made  Weimar  his  home;    in   1801,  he  paid  a 

visit  to  Leipzig,  in   1804,  to  Berlin.       At  the  beginning  of 

1805,  he  suffered  severely,  but,  in  March  and  April,  he  felt 

better  again,  and  was  able  to  resume  work  on  Demetrius.     On 

Schiller's      the  29th  of  April,  however,  he  was  taken  seriously  ill  in  the 

death.          theatre,  and  his  death  occurred  on  the  9th  of  May. 

Schiller  is  an  admirable  type  of  the  "  poet  as  hero."  Others 
have  had  to  fight  against  adversity,  to  live  under  untoward  con- 
ditions, but  few  have  come  through  the  ordeal  so  well  as  he. 
His  view  of  life  was  not  a  calm,  dispassionate  one  like  Goethe's, 
but  then  existence  never  appeared  to  him  as  a  harmonious 
and  well-ordered  whole.  Schiller  went  through  life  as  a 
partisan,  a  fiery  champion  of  high  causes ;  the  heir  of  the 
rationalistic  ideals  of  moral  conduct,  he  fought  throughout 
his  whole  life  for  virtue.  A  utilitarian  poet  in  the  meaner 
sense  of  the  word  he  was  not,  yet  he  never  succeeded  in 
divorcing  his  art  from  morality.  His  writings  are  inspired 
with  a  noble  idealism,  a  lofty  aspiration  and  enthusiasm,  but 
they  have  less  meaning  for  the  modern  world  than  the  im- 
partial realism  of  Goethe ;  the  denizen  of  a  naiver  world 
than  ours,  he  is  representative  of  the  vigorous  iconoclasm  of 
the  eighteenth  century  which  finally  broke  with  the  formal 
traditions  handed  down  from  the  Renaissance.  The  hand 
of  time  has  lain  heavy  on  Schiller's  poetry ;  he  no  longer 
speaks  to  us  with  a  living  voice,  but,  nevertheless,  he  remains 
the  leading  dramatic  poet  of  German  literature,  and,  after 
Goethe,  the  poet  whose  work  has  the  firmest  hold  upon  his 
nation. 


399 


CHAPTER    XIV.- 

MINOR    POETS    OF    THE    CLASSICAL    PERIOD. 
THE   TRANSITION    TO    ROMANTICISM. 

IT  is  sometimes  less  easy  to  obtain  a  just  idea  of  a  brilliant 
period  of  literary  history  than  of  a  mediocre  one;  for  a 
single  poet  of  the  highest  order  destroys  the  whole  perspec- 
tive of  literary  criticism  and  alters  the  proportions  of  a  his- 
torical survey.  This  is  particularly  noticeable  in  the  age  of 
German  literature  now  under  consideration  :  Goethe  and 
Schiller  dwarfed  their  contemporaries  completely,  and  many 
poets  whose  talents  would  have  won  for  them  in  less  favoured 
epochs  an  honourable  place  in  literary  history,  received  only 
scant  attention.  To  the  more  important  of  the  minor  writers, 
at  the  zenith  of  German  classicism,  we  have  to  turn  in  the 
present  chapter. 

Among  these,  Friedrich  von  Matthisson  (I76I-I83I)1  was  per-  F.  von 
haps  the  most  gifted.  Matthisson  was  a  poet  to  find  a  parallel 
to  whom  it  is  necessary  to  go  back  at  least  to  the  Gottingen 
Bund.  Some  of  his  poems  appeared  as  early  as  1781  (Lieder), 
but  the  first  considerable  collection  (Gedichte)  was  published  in 
1787,  and  found  in  Schiller  a  warm  eulogist.  These  lyrics  are, 
for  the  most  part,  elegiac  in  tone ;  their  strength  lies,  as  Schiller 
said,  in  sentimental  descriptions  of  landscape-scenery,  which  re- 
call the  vignettes  of  eighteenth-century  artists.  A  good  example 
of  Matthisson's  verse  is  the  familiar  Elegie  am  Genfersee : — 

"  Die  Sonne  sinkt ;  ein  purpurfarbner  Duft 
Schwimmt  um  Savoyens  dunkle  Tannenhiigel ; 
Der  Alpen  Schnee  entgliiht  in  hoher  Luft ; 
Geneva  malt  sich  in  der  Fluten  Spiegel. 


1  Cp.    Lyriker  -und  Epiker  der  klassischen  Periode,  3  vols.,  ed.    by  M. 
Mendheim,  2  (D.N.L.,  135,  2  [1893]),  191  ff. 


400  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

In  Gold  verfliesst  der  Berggeholze  Saum  ; 
Die  Wiesenflur,  beschneit  von  Bliitenflocken, 
Haucht  Wohlgeriiche  ;  Zefyr  athmet  kaum  ; 
Vom  Jura  schallt  der  Klang  der  Heerdenglocken."1 

On  the  whole,  this  writer's  range  of  poetic  expression  was  not 

wide,  and  his  love  of  nature,   which    recalls    the    old-world 

sentiment  of  Gessner's  Idylls,  is  repeated  with  little  variation 

in  all  his  poems,  and  soon  grows  monotonous  and  wearisome. 

J.  G.  In  his  footsteps  followed  the  Swiss  poet,  Johann  Gaudenz  von 

von  Sails-     Salis-Seewis  (1762-1834), 2  whose  Gedichte  (1793),  however, 

1762-1834.    are  manlier  and  less  sentimental  than  Matthisson's ;  soldier 

and  officer  by  profession,  he  is  more  objective  and  more  in 

touch  with  the  world.     Another  poet  who  may  be  classed  with 

C.  A.  Matthisson  is  Christian  August  Tiedge  (1752-1841).     At  the 

Pledge,        beginning  of  the   nineteenth   century,   no   poem    was    more 

popular  than  Tiedge's  Urania  itber  Gott,  Unsterblichkeit  und 

Freiheit,  "ein  lyrisch-didaktisches  Gedicht "  (i8oi),3  inspired 

by  the  Kantian  ethics,  and  couched  in   the  tone  of  those 

books  on  popular  philosophy  which,  as  we  have  seen,  were 

so  widely  read  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  :  its 

language   is   flowing  and   musical,  but   beneath   the  pleasing 

exterior  of  the   poem,  as   a    new   generation   was    quick   to 

discover,  there  were  only  platitudes. 

A  glance  through   the   innumerable  poetic   Almanachs  of 
these  decades  reveals  a  host  of  lesser  lyric  talents  which,  in 
another  age,   might  have  demanded   more  attention.     Here 
it  is    only  possible   to    mention    a   few    outstanding   names. 
G.  L.  Gotthard  Ludwig,  or — as  he  called  himself — Ludwig  Theoboul 

Kosegar-      Kosegarten  (1758-1818),  was  a  native  of  Mecklenburg;  his 
1818.  earliest  poetry  (Melancholien,  1777  ;  Gedichte,  collected  in  two 

volumes,  1788)  was  written  under  the  influence  of  Klopstock 
and  the  Gottingen  school ;  but  best-known  were  his  idylls  in 
the  style  made  popular  by  Voss.  If  Hermann  und  Dorothea 
shows  the  artistic  evolution  of  which  Voss's  idylls  were  cap- 
able, Die  Inselfahrt  (1805)  and  Jucunde  (:8o8),4  by  Kose- 
garten, are  examples  of  the  eclogue  in  its  decay.  As  a 
country  pastor  in  Riigen,  Kosegarten  suffered  severely  under  the 

1  Cp.  D.N.L.,  135,  2,  217. 

2  Ed.  A.  Frey,  in  D.N.L..  41,  2,  1884. 

3  Reprinted  by  M.  Mendheim,  I.e.,  2,  257  ff. 

*  Reprinted  by  M.  Mendheim,  I.e.,  3,  13  ff.     Cp.  H.  Franck,  G.  L.  Kose- 
garten, Halle,  1887. 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  40! 

triviality  of  provincial  life,  without  having  Voss's  art  of  con- 
verting  his    experiences    into    poetry.      He   is   fond   of   full- 
sounding  epithets  and  has  a  lofty  lyric  style  which  is  little  in 
harmony  with  the  simple  themes  of  his  poetry.    To  the  Weimar 
Court  circle  belonged  Amalie  von  Helvig-Imhoff  (1776-1831),   A.  von 
a  niece  of  Goethe's  friend,  Frau  von  Stein.      Her  chief  poem   [^ho'ff 
is    Die  Schwestern   von  Lesbos?   an    epic   in   six  cantos  and   1776-1831. 
hexameters,  which,  after  being  revised  by  Goethe,  was  pub- 
lished in  Schiller's  Musenalmanach  for   1800. 

Johann  Gottfried  Seume  (i 763-1810) 2  was  a  writer  whose  J.  G. 
ideas  were  rooted  in  the  "  Geniezeit."  A  passionate  hater  of  ^g"16^ 
tyranny  in  all  its  forms,  he  was  obliged,  against  his  will,  to 
take  up  arms  against  freedom,  first  in  America  and  then  in 
Poland.  By  birth  a  Saxon,  he  was  on  his  way  to  Paris  in 
1781,  to  continue  his  studies,  when  he  was  kidnapped  by 
Hessian  recruiting -officers,  and  sold  to  England  for  service 
against  her  American  rebels.  On  his  return  from  America, 
he  again  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  military  authorities,  but 
ultimately  was  set  at  liberty,  and  settled  near  Leipzig.  His 
poetry  is  inspired  by  the  humanitarian  ideals  of  the  "  Auf- 
klarung "  rather  than  by  any  inward  lyric  impulse ;  and  the 
most  familiar  of  his  poems,  Der  Wilde,  expresses  in  a  new 
form  that  respect  for  the  savage  races,  which  Rousseau  had 
first  made  fashionable  in  European  literature.  Seume's  most 
characteristic  works,  however,  are  his  prose  autobiographical 
writings,  Spaztergang  nach  Syraktis  im  Jahre  1802  (1803), 
Mein  Sommer,  1805  (1806),  and  Mein  Leben  (1813).  His 
prose  has  sometimes  the  lightness  and  vividness  of  Georg 
Forster's  ;  and,  if  he  has  not  Forster's  wide  artistic  and  scientific 
knowledge,  he  has,  what  was  more  unusual  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century  in  Germany,  political  interests :  Mein  Sommer 
gives  a  vivid  picture  of  the  Napoleonic  age. 

Besides  these  minor  poets,  whose  thought  and  work  kept 
strictly  within  the  boundaries  of  German  classicism,  and  even 
occasionally  recalled  the  era  of  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  another 
group  of  writers  has  to  be  considered  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  who,  while  still  belonging  to  that  century, 
prepared  the  way  for  the  Romantic  revival  of  the  succeeding 

1  Reprinted  by  M.  Mendheim,  l.c,,  3,  107  ff. 

2  Prosaische  und  poetische  Werke,  10  vols. ,  Berlin,  1879.     Cp.  O.  Planer  and 
C.  Reissmann,  /.  G.  Seume,  Leipzig,  1898. 

2  C 


4O2 


THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


From  class- 
icism to 
Romanti- 
cism. 


Fichte's 
individual- 
ism. 


age.  The  chief  representatives  of  this  transition  from  the 
classicism  and  humanitarianism  of  the  eighteenth  century  to 
the  Romantic  individualism  of  the  nineteenth,  were  Fichte  in 
philosophy,  and  Richter  and  Holderlin  in  literature. 

While  Kant's  work  forms  the  culmination  of  the  philo- 
sophical movement  of  his  century,  Fichte  is  to  be  regarded  as 
a  mediator  between  Kant  and  Romanticism.  Johann  Gottlieb 
Fichte l  was  a  native  of  the  same  corner  of  Germany  as  Les- 
sing,  having  been  born  in  the  Oberlausitz  in  1762.  After 
a  youth  of  extreme  hardships  he  fell,  in  1790,  under  the 
influence  of  the  Kantian  philosophy,  and  shortly  afterwards 
went  to  Konigsberg,  where  Kant  helped  him  to  publish  his 
first  work.  In  1794,  he  was  appointed  professor  in  Jena,  and 
soon  attracted  many  followers ;  but,  four  years  later,  he  was 
obliged  to  lay  down  his  professorship  in  consequence  of  an 
accusation  of  atheism.  Fichte  then  settled  in  Berlin,  where  he 
was  welcomed  by  the  members  of  the  Romantic  School.  In 
1805,  he  was  appointed  professor  at  the  then  Prussian  Uni- 
versity of  Erlangen  ;  but  the  defeat  of  Prussia  in  the  following 
year,  again  left  him  without  a  position.  He  returned  to 
Berlin,  and  during  Napoleon's  investment  of  the  Prussian 
capital,  thundered  forth  the  magnificent  Reden  an  die  deutsche 
Nation  (1808),  which  contributed,  in  no  small  degree,  to 
the  awakening  of  German  national  feeling  and  the  revolt 
against  Napoleon.  Fichte  was  the  first  rector  of  the  new 
Berlin  University;  in  1814,  however,  he  was  carried  off  by 
hospital -fever,  to  which  both  he  and  his  wife  had  exposed 
themselves,  while  nursing  the  wounded. 

The  details  of  Fichte's  philosophic  system,  which  grew  out 
of  Kant's,  hardly  concern  us  here ;  but  his  ethical  doctrines 
were  a  powerful  factor  in  literary  evolution.  The  basis  of  his 
philosophy  is  the  individual,  the  Ego ;  and  the  moral  world, 
even  reason  itself,  is  the  conscious  creation  of  that  Ego, — 
Faust's  "  Im  Anfang  war  die  That "  might  thus  stand  as 
the  motto  of  all  Fichte's  work.  His  idealism  was  active  and 
productive,  and  he  exerted  a  regenerating  power  more  as  a 
moral  than  as  a  purely  intellectual  force.  With  a  ruthlessness 
which  even  the  medieval  ascetics  did  not  surpass,  he  preached 
principles  of  self-denial  and  resignation,  preached  that  life  is 

i  Werke,  ed.  I.  H.  Fichte,  8  vols.,  Berlin,  1845-46.  Cp.  K.  Fischer,  /.  G. 
Fichte,  3rd  ed.,  Heidelberg,  1897. 


CHAP.  XIV.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  403 

only  holy  in  so  far  as  it  is  founded  on  renunciation  ;  he  insisted 
that  every  man  must,  in  the  most  literal  sense,  carve  out  his 
own  destiny.  This  invigorating  individualism  and  idealism 
were  a  chalybeate  spring,  in  which  the  German  spirit  bathed 
itself,  to  emerge  again  with  new  strength,  to  face  the  struggle 
for  national  existence  that  lay  before  it  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Friedrich  Schlegel  called  Fichte's  Wissen- 
schaftslehre,  of  which  the  first  edition  appeared  in  1794,  one 
of  the  three  great  "  tendencies  "  of  the  age,  the  other  two  being 
Wilhelm  Meister  and  the  French  Revolution.  This  was  no 
more  than  an  apercu  of  the  brilliant  critic;  but  the  fact  is 
indisputable  that  from  Fichte  the  Romantic  School  drew  its 
most  vital  ethical  ideas. 

No  German  writer  shares  the  character  of  both  centuries 
to  the  same  extent  as  the  chief  novelist  of  the  classical  period, 
Johann  Paul  Friedrich  Richter.1  His  novels  combine,  in  j.  p.  F. 
strange  incongruity,  the  exaggeration  and  sentimentality  of  the  Rl£htel' 
"Sturm  und  Drang"  with  the  stern  idealism  of  Fichte,  the 
old-fashioned  technique  of  the  German  romance  with  an  ex- 
traordinary imaginative  power.  "Jean  Paul,"  the  name  with 
which  Richter  signed  his  earlier  books,  was  born  at  Wunsiedel, 
in  the  Fichtelgebirge,  on  the  2ist  of  March,  1763,  and  in 
1781,  went  to  the  University  of  Leipzig  to  study  theology. 
The  bitter  poverty  which  Richter  experienced  as  a  child,  ac- 
companied him  throughout  his  student  years.  But  it  did  not 
still  his  thirst  for  knowledge.  After  an  unhappy  experiment 
in  publishing  his  first  book,  Gronldndische  Prozesse  (1783-84), 
he  returned  home  to  escape  his  creditors ;  but  there  seemed 
even  more  prospect  of  his  starving  in  the  country  than  in 
Leipzig,  and  he  accepted  a  miserable  position  as  private  tutor, 
with  little  hope  of  seeing  his  manuscripts  in  print.  At  length, 
in  1789,  he  induced  a  bookseller  to  print  the  Auswahl  aus 
des  Teufels  Papieren,  a  continuation  of  the  first  satirical 
sketches  which  appeared  while  he  was  still  in  Leipzig.  In 
the  spring  of  1790,  Jean  Paul  obtained  an  appointment  in  a 
private  school,  and,  from  this  time  on,  fortune  was  kinder  to 
him;  he  published  Die  unsichtbare  Loge  (1793),  a  fantastic 
variation  of  the  educational  novel  which  had  arisen  under 

1  The  most  complete  edition  of  Richter's  works  is  that  published  by  Hempel 
(60  vols.),  Berlin,  1879  ;  a  selection  edited  by  P.  Nerrlich,  6  vols.,  in  D.N.L., 
130-134  [1884-87].  Cp.  P.  Nerrlich,  Jean  Paul,  sein  Leben  und  seine  \Verke, 
Berlin,  1889. 


404  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

Rousseau's  influence.  Die  unsichtbare  Loge  laid  the  founda- 
Hesperus,  tion  of  Richter's  popularity,  but  it  was  much  inferior  to  his  next 
1795-  book,  Hesperus,  oder  45  Hundsposttage  (1795).  Victor,  the 

hero  of  this  story,  is  the  foster-son  of  a  certain  Lord  Horion, 
and  one  of  those  noble-minded  sentimentalists  brought  into 
vogue  by  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  He  becomes  an  oculist  in 
order  to  cure  his  foster-father  of  blindness ;  the  operation  is 
successful,  and  Victor  is  appointed  body  -  physician  to  a 
German  prince.  The  conflict  which  Richter  depicts,  that  of 
the  idealist  with  the  sordid  realities  of  life,  runs,  as  we  have 
seen,  through  all  the  literature  of  this  age ;  but  Victor's 
strivings  are  apparently  objectless,  and  the  story  tapers  away 
to  an  ordinary  sentimental  romance. 

Quint™  Jean  Paul's  next  romance,  Leben  des  Quintus  Fixlein  (1796), 

f'*fe"t'  was  on  similar  lines  to  the  little  prose  idyll  which  he  had 
appended  to  the  Unsichtbare  Loge,  under  the  title  Leben  des 
vergniigten  Schulmeisterleins  Maria  Wuz ;  but  Fixlein  is  a 
longer  and  more  carefully  written  book.  It  tells  how  a  poor 
school-teacher  ultimately  rises  to  be  Pfarrer  of  the  village 
church,  and  how  he  is  able  to  marry  and  be  happy.  Slight  as 
the  story  is,  its  idyllic  charm  is  irresistible,  and  the  whole  is 
suffused  with  a  gentle,  almost  lyrical,  sentiment  and  pathos. 
A  better  example  of  Richter's  skill  in  depicting  the  joys  of 
common  lives  could  hardly  be  found  than  his  description  of 
Fixlein's  wedding ;  a  passage  from  this  scene  will  serve  as  an 
illustration  of  the  author's  style  : — 

"  In  der  Friihe  des  Gebetlautens  ging  der  Brautigam,  weil  das 
Getose  der  Zuriistungen  sein  stilles  Beten  aufhielt,  in  den  Gottes- 
acker  hinaus,  der  (wie  an  mehren  Orten)  samt  der  Kirche 
gleichsam  als  Pfarrhof  um  sein  Pfarrhaus  lag.  Hier  auf  dem 
nassen  Griin,  iiber  dessen  geschlossene  Blumen  die  Kirchhofs- 
mauer  noch  breite  Schatten  deckte,  kiihlte  sich  seine  Seele  von 
den  heissen  Traumen  der  Erde  ab  ;  hier,  wo  ihm  die  weisse 
Leichenplatte  seines  Lehrers  wie  das  zugefallene  Thor  am  Janus- 
tempel  des  Lebens  vorkam.  .  .  .  Aber  als  er  ins  Haus  kam,  traf 
er  alles  im  Schellengelaute  und  in  der  Janitscharenmusik  der 
hochzeitlichen  Freude  an, — alle  Hochzeitsgaste  batten  die  Nacht- 
miitzen  heruntergethan  und  tranken  sehr, — es  wurde  geplappert, 
gekocht,  frisiert, — Thee-Servicen,  KafFee-Servicen  und  Warmbier- 
Servicen  zogen  hintereinander,  und  Suppenteller  voll  Brautkuchen 
gingen  wie  Topfersscheiben  und  Schopfrader  um.  Der  Schul- 
meister  probierte  aus  seinem  Hause  mit  drei  Jungen  ein  Arioso 
heriiber,  und  wollte  nach  dem  Ende  der  Singstunde  seinen  Vor- 
gesetzten  damit  iiberraschen.  Aber  dann  fielen  alle  Arme  der 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  405 

schaumenden  Freudenstrome  in  einander,  als  die  mit  Herzen  und 
Vexierblumen  behangene  Himmelskonigin,  die  Braut,  auf  die  Erde 
nieder  kam  voll  zaghafter  Freude,  voll  zitternder  demiithiger  Liebe 
— als  die  Glocken  anfingen — als  die  Marschsaule  ausriickte — als 
sich  das  Dorf  noch  eher  zusammenstellte  —  als  die  Orgel,  die 
Gemeinde,  der  Konfrater  und  die  Spatzen  an  den  Baumen  der 
Kirchfenster  die  Wirbel  auf  der  Heerpauke  des  Jubelfestes  immer 
langer  schlugen.  .  .  .  Das  Herz  wollte  dem  singenden  Brautigam 
vor  Freude  aus  der  Weste  hiipfen,  '  dass  es  bey  seinem  Brauttage 
so  ordentlich  und  prachtig  hergehe.'"1 

Quintus  Fixlein  was  followed  by  a  book  which  shared  the 
character  of  both  the  idyll  and  the  novel,  and  bore  the  long 
title,  £  lumen-,  Frucht-  und  Dornenstiicke,  oder  Ehestand,  Tod  Siebenkds, 
und  Hochzeit  des  Armenadvocaten  F.  St.  Siebenkds (1796-9 7).  r796-97- 
In  this  story  a  fantastic  element,  which  was  never  altogether 
absent  from  Jean  Paul's  work,  was  brought  into  prominence. 
Siebenkas,  one  of  those  sensitive,  poetic  souls  in  whom  the 
novelist  delighted,  lives  unhappily  with  his  practically-minded 
wife,  Lenette.  An  intimate  friend,  Leibgeber,  introduces  him 
to  a  young  Englishwoman,  Nathalie,  with  whom  he  falls  in 
love.  The  problem  now  before  him  is  how  to  free  himself 
from  Lenette,  and  begin  a  new  and  higher  existence  with  the 
intellectual  Nathalie.  At  Leibgeber's  suggestion,  Siebenkas 
pretends  to  die,  and  allows  his  empty  coffin  to  be  buried; 
he  himself  escapes  to  Nathalie,  while  Lenette  also  finds  a 
more  congenial  helpmate.  The  offence  which  Jean  Paul  here 
commits  against  good  taste,  not  to  speak  of  his  defiance  of 
accepted  principles  of  social  morality,  shows  that  he  had  still 
too  much  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  in  his  veins,  to  take  advantage 
of  the  possibilities  which  Wilhelm  Meister  had  just  begun  to 
open  up  to  German  fiction. 

After  Siebenkds  came  a  number  of  smaller  genre  sketches, 
among  which  Der  Jubel-Senior  (1797)  deserves  the  first  place ; 
and  then  between  1800  and  1803,  Richter  published  his  most 
ambitious   novel,    Titan,  upon  which  he  had  been  at  work    Titan, 
since   1797.      The  Titan  of  this  novel,  Albano,  is  again   a   l8o°-3- 
hero  that  recalls  the  "Geniezeit";  he  is  one  of  those  heaven- 
storming  idealists  who  go  through  life  making  demands  upon 
it,   which  never  are  and  never  can   be  satisfied.      But   the 
influence  of  Wilhelm  Meister  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fact  that 
Titan  is  more  closely  knit  together  than  its    predecessors, 

1  P.  Nerrlich's  edition,  a(D.N.L.,  131,  i),  141  f. 


406  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

and  its  aim  is  more  definite.  Albano,  who  grows  up  in 
ignorance  of  his  parents,  passes  through  a  kind  of  apprentice- 
ship to  life,  before  coming  into  his  kingdom  as  heir  to  the 
Prince  of  Hohenflies,  and  this  training  is,  like  Meister's,  a 
sentimental  education.  The  scene  of  the  novel  is  laid  for  the 
most  part  in  Italy,  and  the  pivots  round  which  it  turns  are 
Albano's  relations  to  three  women,  the  gentle,  sentimental 
Liane — for  whom  Charlotte  von  Kalb,  Schiller's  friend,  seems 
to  have  been  the  model — the  Countess  Linda  de  Romeiro, 
who  is  herself  something  of  a  Titan-nature,  and  lastly  the 
Princess  Idoine,  in  whom  the  hero  finds  a  reflection  of  his 
better  self,  and  whom  he  ultimately  marries. 

Between  1802  and  1805,  Jean  Paul  wrote  another  novel, 
Fkgel-  Flegeljahre  (1804-5),  which  was  still  more  influenced  by 
Ja£™'  Wilhelm  Meister.  The  hero  of  Flegeljahre,  Gottwalt  Harnisch, 

a  shy,  retiring,  impracticable  idealist  with  a  good  heart,  is  any. 
thing  but  a  Titan ;  and  the  author  sets  out  with  the  object  of 
converting  him  into  a  man  of  the  world.  His  education  is 
fantastically  set  in  scene,  Gottwalt  becoming  universal  heir  of 
a  wealthy  relative,  under  conditions  which  bring  him  into 
conflict  with  the  disappointed  kinsfolk  and  thus  effect  his 
conversion  to  practical  life.  But  the  novel  remains  un- 
finished, and  the  problem  with  which  it  began,  unsolved. 
Of  Richter's  later  work  little  need  be  said  ;  several  other  idylls 
followed,  of  which  at  least  one,  Leben  Fibels  (1812),  almost 
ranks  with  Quintus  Fixlein ;  but  his  last  romance,  Der 
Komet,  oder  Nicolaus  Marggraf  (1820-22),  was  again  diffuse 
and  disconnected.  Besides  writing  fiction,  Jean  Paul  was  also 
the  author  of  a  Vorschule  der  Aesthetik  (1804)  and  Levana, 
oder  Erziehungslehre,  a  treatise  on  education,  which  appeared 
in  1807.  From  1804  on,  he  lived  in  Bayreuth,  where  he  died 
in  1825. 

During  his  lifetime,  Richter  was  a  remarkably  popular 
writer,  but  this  was,  for  the  most  part,  due  to  the  sentimental 
tone  of  his  romances ;  he  appealed  to  the  same  class  of 
readers  who,  in  the  previous  generation,  had  wept  over 
Clarissa  Harlowe,  Werther  and  Siegwart.  In  form  and  spirit, 
Richter's  novels  have,  as  we  have  seen,  a  closer  resemblance 
to  those  of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  than  to  Wilhelm  Meister 
and  the  novels  of  the  Romanticists;  and  thus,  regarded 
merely  as  fiction,  his  work  aged  rapidly,  and  at  the  present 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  407 

day  the  bulk  of  it  is  unreadable.  With  clumsy  and  often 
tasteless  humour,  Richter  affected  .to  despise  those  qualities 
of  form  and  proportion  which  give  literature  abiding  worth. 
Only  an  artistic  instinct  could  have  counterbalanced  his  ex- 
treme subjectivity,  which  out  of  the  characters  of  his  stories 
made  mere  channels  for  his  own  sentiments  and  views  of  life. 
But  this  is  only  one  aspect  of  Richter's  work ;  to  another 
and  better  class  of  readers  among  his  contemporaries,  just 
as  to  Borne  a  generation  later,  and  to  Carlyle  and  De  Quincey 
in  England,  Jean  Paul  appealed  as  a  humourist  and,  at  the 
same  time,  as  the  bearer  of  a  new  gospel  inspired  by  the 
idealism  of  Fichte.  His  refined  spirituality,  his  constant  and 
reverential  subordination  of  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  his  con- 
tempt for  time  as  opposed  to  eternity,  his  holy  awe  before 
the  miracles  of  creation — in  all  this,  Richter's  mind  was  of  an 
essentially  Romantic  cast.  No  writer,  not  even  Novalis,  has 
enriched  German  literature  with  so  many  significant  aphorisms, 
so  many  scenes  and  passages  of  the  highest  imaginative  beauty. 
There  is  nothing  more  impressive  in  German  prose  than  the 
dream  of  the  universe,  which  is  introduced  into  Der  Komet 
(Traum  uber  das  Alt},  or  the  nightmare  of  atheism,  which 
forms  a  "  Blumenstiick  "  in  Siebenkds  under  the  title  Rede  des 
Todten  Christus  vom  Weltgebdude  herab,  dass  kein  Gott  sey : — 

"Christus  fuhr  fort:  '  Ich  ging  durch  die  Welten,  ich  stieg  in 
die  Sonnen  und  flog  mit  den  Milchstrassen  durch  die  Wiisten  des 
Himmels  ;  aber  es  ist  kein  Gott.  Ich  stieg  herab,  so  weit  das  Sein 
seine  Schatten  wirft,  und  schauete  in  den  Abgrund  und  rief: 
Vater,  wo  bist  du  ?  aber  ich  horte  nur  den  ewigen  Sturm,  den 
niemand  regiert,  und  der  schlummernde  Regenbogen  aus  Westen 
stand  ohne  eine  Sonne,  die  ihn  schuf,  iiber  dem  Abgrunde  und 
tropfte  hinunter.  Und  als  ich  aufblickte  zur  unermesslichen  Welt 
nach  dem  gottlichen  Auge,  starrte  sie  mich  mit  einer  leeren, 
bodenlosen  Augenhohle  an  ;  und  die  Ewigkeit  lag  auf  clem 
Chaos  und  zernagte  es  und  wiederkauete  sich — Schreiet  fort,  Miss- 
tone,  zerschreiet  die  Schatten  ;  denn  Er  ist  nicht !'"  *• 

But  for  the  readers  of  to-day,  who  no  longer  share  Richter's 
Romantic  conception  of  life,  even  this  side  of  his  work  has 
not  the  vital  interest  that  it  once  had,  and  the  poetic  beauty  of 
individual  passages  cannot  atone  for  the  formlessness  of  the 
whole.  Richter's  claim  to  a  worthy  position  in  his  nation's 

1  P.  Nerrlich's  edition,  a  (D.N.L.,  131,  i),  430. 


408 


THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


literature  is  best  justified  by  his  prose  idylls.  In  painting  the 
quiet,  simple,  unassuming  life  amidst  which  he  grew  up, 
in  painting  it  with  the  truth  and  warmth  of  the  old  Dutch 
artists,  Richter  is  unsurpassed,  and  his  reputation  to-day  rests 
mainly  on  his  chronicles  of  the  pastors  and  schoolmasters 
whom  he  knew  so  well. 

The  most  gifted  lyric  genius  among  Germany's  poets  at 
F.  Holder-  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  Friedrich  Holderlin.1 
\m,  1770-  Unlike  Richter,  Holderlin  had  comparatively  little  of  the 
Romantic  spirit ;  the  fervid  pantheism,  which  inspires  his 
work,  was  a  legacy  from  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang,"  and,  in 
all  else,  his  temperament  was  Greek :  he  drew  his  inspira- 
tion from  antiquity.  Born  in  1770,  at  Lauffen  in  Wurtem- 
berg,  Holderlin  had  more  than  his  share  of  disappointments 
and  unhappiness;  the  university  appointments  he  aspired  to 
were  refused  him,  and  he  spent  his  best  years  in  uncongenial 
tutoring.  The  most  satisfactory  position  of  this  kind  which 
he  held,  namely,  that  in  the  house  of  the  banker  Gontard 
in  Frankfort,  came  to  an  abrupt  end  in  1798,  owing  to  the 
poet's  passion  for  the  wife  of  his  employer.  This  unhappy 
incident  helped  to  make  Holderlin,  who  had  always  been 
sensitive  and  prone  to  melancholy,  brooding  and  excitable. 
In  December,  1801,  after  spending  some  months  in  Switzer- 
land, he  again  became  a  private  tutor,  this  time  in  Bordeaux. 
Except  for  one  or  two  letters,  his  family  heard  nothing  further 
of  him,  until  one  morning,  in  the  June  of  the  following  year, 
he  arrived  home,  in  a  state  of  mental  derangement.  For  a 
time  his  condition  showed  signs  of  improvement,  but  the 
change  was  only  temporary ;  the  malady  proved  to  be  incur- 
able, and  he  was  placed  first  in  an  asylum  in  Tubingen  and 
then  in  the  house  of  a  carpenter  in  that  town.  His  death  did 
not  take  place  until  1843. 

Holderlin's  longest  work  is  a  romance  in  letters,  Hyperion, 
oder  der  JEremit  in  Griechenland,  which  he  had  begun  as 
a  student;  it  appeared  in  two  volumes  in  1797  and  1799. 
Hyperion,  a  young  Greek,  takes  part  in  the  unhappy  struggle 
of  his  people  against  the  Turks  in  1770,  and  in  his  letters 
describes  his  feelings,  his  hopes,  and  his  disappointments. 

1  Holderlin's  Gssammelte  Dichtungcn,  edited  by  B.  Litzmann,  2  vols.,  Stutt- 
gart, 1896;  a  selection  by  M.  Mendheim,  in  D.N.L.,  135,  2.  Cp.  C.  C.  T. 
Litzmann,  F.  Holderlins  Leben,  Berlin,  1890. 


Hyperion, 
1797-99- 


CHAP.  XIV.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  409 

There  is  little  connected  plot  in  the  book,  and  the  characters 
are  shadowy  and  indistinct ;  the  fervid  tone  is  reminiscent  of 
Werther,  but  the  poet's  enthusiasm  for  Greek  antiquity  throws 
a  mellow  light  over  the  whole,  which  makes  the  reader  forget 
how  much  it  has  in  common  with  the  "Sturm  und  Drang." 
Above  all,  the  high-sounding,  dithyrambic  periods  and  vivid 
descriptions  of  Greek  scenery — which  Holderlin  himself  never 
saw  —  make  Hyperion  a  romance  that  stands  alone  in  the 
literature  of  its  time.  The  following  apostrophe  to  nature  will 
give  some  idea  of  the  beauty  of  Holderlin's  prose  : — 

"  Aber  du  scheinst  noch,  Sonne  des  Himmels  !  Du  griinst  noch, 
heilige  Erde  !  Noch  rauschen  die  Strome  ins  Meer,  und  schattige 
Baume  sauseln  im  Mittag.  Der  Wonnegesang  des  Friihlings  singt 
meine  sterblichen  Gedanken  in  Schlaf.  Die  Fiille  der  alllebendigen 
Welt  ernahrt  und  sattiget  mit  Trunkenheit  mein  darbend  Wesen. 

O  selige  Natur  !  Ich  weiss  nicht,  wie  mir  geschiehet,  wenn  ich 
mein  Auge  erhebe  vor  deiner  Scheme,  aber  alle  Lust  des  Himmels 
ist  in  den  Thranen,  die  ich  weine  vor  dir,  der  Geliebte  vor  der 
Geliebten. 

Mein  ganzes  Wesen  verstummt  und  lauscht,  wenn  die  zarte 
Welle  der  Luft  mir  um  die  Brust  spielt.  Verloren  ins  weite  Blau, 
blick'  ich  oft  hinauf  an  den  Ather  und  hinein  ins  heilige  Meer,  und 
mir  ist,  als  6'ffnet'  ein  verwandter  Geist  mir  die  Arme,  als  loste  der 
Schmerz  der  Einsamkeit  sich  auf  ins  Leben  der  Gottheit. 

Eins  zu  seyn  mit  allem,  das  ist  Leben  der  Gottheit,  das  ist  der 
Himmel  des  Menschen."  l 

A  tragedy  on  the  subject  of  Empedokles  long  occupied  Holder- 
lin, but,  as  his  novel  plainly  shows,  he  had  none  of  the 
qualities  that  go  to  make  a  dramatist.  He  is  essentially  His  lyrics. 
a  lyric  poet ;  his  poetry  is  the  fulfilment  of  what  Schiller's 
Goffer  Griechenlands  promised.  In  Holderlin's  earlier  lyrics, 
the  fervour  of  the  "  Geniezeit "  stands  in  a  somewhat  incongru- 
ous contrast  to  the  philosophic  strain  introduced  by  Schiller 
into  the  German  lyric;  but  as  soon  as  Holderlin  freed  him- 
self from  the  restraint  of  rhyme,  and  learned  to  move  in  free 
classical  metres,  his  poetry  attained  a  certain  inner  harmony 
and  repose.  A  Bacchantic  passion  for  Greece  and  a  deep 
conviction  of  the  oneness  of  God  and  nature,  formed  the 
two  poles  of  Holderlin's  nature,  and  over  all  his  writings 
lies  a  deep  melancholy,  a  refined  pessimism,  which  brings 
him  into  touch  with  the  poets  of  the  later  nineteenth  century. 

1  B.  Litzmann's  edition,  2,  68. 


4io 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 


Hyperions 
Schicksals- 
lied,  1789. 


Dialect 
poetry. 


J.  P.  He- 
bel,  1760- 
1826. 


Never  has  the  sense  of  man's  helplessness  been  more  nobly 
expressed  than  in  Hyperions  Schicksalslied  (1789),  the  most 
beautiful  poem  that  Holderlin  ever  wrote : — 

"  Ihr  wandelt  droben  im  Licht 
Auf  weichem  Boden,  selige  Genien  ! 
Glanzende  Gotterliifte 
Ruhren  euch  leicht, 
Wie  die  Finger  der  Kiinstlerin 
Heilige  Saiten. 

Schicksallos,  wie  der  schlafende 
Saugling,  athmen  die  Himmlischen  ; 
Keusch  bewahrt 
In  bescheidener  Knospe, 
Bliihet  ewig 
Ihnen  der  Geist, 
Und  die  seligen  Augen 
Blicken  in  stiller 
Ewiger  Klarheit. 

Doch  uns  ist  gegeben, 
Auf  keiner  Statte  zu  ruh'n, 
Es  schwinden,  es  fallen 
Die  leidenden  Menschen 
Blindlings  von  einer 
Stunde  zur  andern, 
Wie  Wasser  von  Klippe 
Zu  Klippe  geworfen, 
Jahrlang  ins  Ungewisse  hinab. "  1 

Intimately  associated  with  the  rise  of  the  Romantic  move- 
ment in  Germany  was  the  interest  taken  in  the  language  of 
the  people :  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth,  dialect  became  for  the  first 
time  a  recognised  medium  of  literary  expression.  Before 
then,  the  few  poems  which  had  been  written  in  dialect, 
such  as  Voss's  Low  German  idylls,  attained  merely  a  local 
celebrity.  The  first  master  of  German  dialect  poetry  is 
Johann  Peter  Hebel2  (1760-1826),  a  native  of  Basle.  Hebel 
was  partly  educated  at  Lorrach,  a  few  miles  north  of  Basle 
in  the  Black  Forest,  and  wrote  his  Allemannische  Gedichte 
(1803)  in  the  dialect  spoken  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lorrach. 
The  charm  of  Hebel's  verse,  as  of  his  mildly  didactic  stories 
in  the  Rheinldndische  Hausfreund  (1808-11)  and  Schatzkast- 

1  Cp.  D.N.L.,  135,  2,  456  f. 

2  Hebel's  Allemannisclie Gedichte  and  Schatzkdstlein  are  edited  by  O.  Behagel 
(2  vols.),  in  D.N.L.,  142  [1883]  ;  also  in  Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  24  and 
143-144,  Leipzig,  1868-69. 


CHAP.  XIV.]         THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  41! 

lein  (1811),  is  their  absolute  faithfulness  to  the  milieu  which 
they  describe;  nature  and  life  are  here  viewed  exclusively 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  Black  Forest  peasant.  Hebel 
was  himself  too  much  a  child  of  the  people  to  recognise  the 
possibilities,  which  Auerbach  discovered  a  generation  later,  of 
the  peasant  as  a  literary  figure,  and  he  was  not  appreciably 
influenced  by  the  methods  or  theories  of  the  Romanticists. 
As  further  masters  of  dialect-literature  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  may  be  mentioned  the  Austrian,  Maurus  Lindemayr 
(1723-83),  and  the  Swiss  artist  and  poet,  Johann  Martin  j.  M. 
Usteri  (1763-1827),  who  wrote  in  the  Zurich  dialect:  De  u|ten'8 
Vikari  and  De  Herr  ffeiri,  the  two  best-known  poems  by 
the  latter,1  were  modelled  on  Voss's  idylls. 

The  general  movement  of  German  literature  in  the  eighteenth 
century  may  be  said  to  have  been  from  a  false  classicism  to 
a  true  one.  It  began,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the  imitation  of 
the  French  classics  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  then  came 
Lessing  and  Winckelmann,  who  vindicated  the  superiority  of 
the  classical  spirit  as  seen  in  Greek  antiquity,  and  taught 
the  German  people  that  their  national  art  and  literature 
were  not  dependent  upon  those  of  France.  Lessing  proved 
triumphantly  that  what  was  greatest  in  literature — above  all, 
the  drama  of  Shakespeare — was  in  complete  harmony  with 
the  Greek  spirit.  Side  by  side  with  this  aesthetic  reformation 
went  a  deeper  ethical  movement ;  and  after  many  a  battle 
over  faith  and  unbelief,  over  the  nature  of  right  and  wrong, 
the  moral  philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century  arrived  at  a 
broad,  calm  humanitarianism,  which  was  the  real  heritage 
of  Rationalism.  The  evolution  from  Lessing's  classicism  to 
Goethe's  humanitarianism  had,  however,  been  by  no  means 
uninterrupted ;  between  these  two  men  lay  the  intellectual 
upheaval  known  as  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  Advance  was 
only  possible  by  means  of  a  return  to  nature — in  other  words, 
reform  could  only  be  effective  if  it  were  in  harmony  with 
nature.  This  reform  accomplished,  the  movement  of  "  Sturm 
und  Drang  "  had  no  further  reason  for  existence,  and  its  un- 
balanced literature  gave  place  to  masterpieces  like  Iphigenie, 
Hermann  und  Dorothea^  and  Schiller's  last  dramas.  Thus, 
a  classical  spirit,  based,  not  on  literary  conventions,  but  on 

1  Dichtungen  in   Versen  ttnd  Prosa,  edited  by  D.  Hess,  3  vols.,  3rd.  ed., 
Leipzig,  1877 ;  De  Vikari  in  Reclam,  I.e.,  609-610,  Leipzig,  1873. 


412  THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  IV. 

poetic  truth,  was  reinstated  in  German  literature,  and  with 
the  full  development  of  this  spirit,  the  eighteenth  century 
may  be  said  to  culminate.  Meanwhile,  however,  the  vital 
ideas  behind  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  were  neither  lost  nor 
destroyed ;  they  lived  on,  long  after  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang  " 
had  ceased  to  be  the  dominating  force  in  Germany's  literature, 
and,  at  the  close  of  the  century,  rose  once  more  into  conflict 
with  that  classicism  which,  as  we  have  seen,  they  had  helped 
to  establish  on  a  solid  basis.  This  movement  of  revolt  is 
known  as  Romanticism. 


PART    V. 


THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE    ROMANTIC    SCHOOL. 

AT  the  Court  of  Weimar,  the  last  night  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  celebrated  by  a  masquerade  arranged  by  Goethe 
himself,  and  midnight  being  past,  he,  Schiller,  the  phil- 
osopher Schelling,  and  the  Norwegian  Steffens  withdrew  into 
a  side-room,  where  they  made  eloquent  speeches  and  drank 
a  welcome  to  the  new  century  in  champagne.  It  is  not 
surprising,  in  view  of  the  history  of  the  preceding  hundred 
years,  that  German  literature  should  have  entered  upon  the 
new  era  with  boundless  hopes  and  enthusiasm  ;  but,  as  has 
already  been  indicated,  the  immediate  future  did  not  belong 
to  the  humanism  which  had  formed  the  goal  of  the  best 
tendencies  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Two  years  before  that 
century  reached  its  close,  a  new  intellectual  movement, 
Romanticism,  had  taken  definite  shape,  and  this  movement 
stood  sponsor  at  the  birth  of  the  new  epoch.  Of  the  little 
group  that  hailed  the  nineteenth  century  so  enthusiastically 
at  the  Weimar  masquerade,  Schelling  and  Steffens  were 
leading  spirits  in  the  Romantic  School ;  Schiller,  although 
by  nature  little  of  a  Romanticist,  was  at  that  very  time 
engaged  upon  a  Romantic  tragedy,  while  to  Goethe,  the 
author  of  Wilhelm  Meister^  the  new  school  looked  up  with 
reverence  as  its  master. 

It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  literary  history  that  the  Romantic  The  Ro- 
School a  should  have  been  founded  in  the  metropolis  of  ration- 

1  Cp.  R.  Haym,  Die  romantische  Schule,  Berlin,  1870:  H.  Hettner,  Die 
romantischc  Schule  in  ihrem  inneren  Zusammenhange  mit  Goethe  itnd  Schiller, 
Brunswick,  1850 ;  G.  Brandes,  Den  romantiske  Skole  i  Tyskland  (Hoved- 
stromninger  i  del  iqde  Aarhundredes  Litteratur,  2),  also  in  Brandes'  Sam- 
lede  Skrifter,  4,  Copenhagen,  1900,  195  ff. ;  German  translation,  Leipzig,  1887. 


416  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

alism,  in  Berlin:  here,  however,  began,  in  1797  and  1798, 
the  friendship  between  Ludwig  Tieck  and  the  two  brothers 
Schlegel,  and  here  also,  in  1798,  was  published  the  first 
number  of  the  Athenceum  (1798-1800).  But  Berlin  was 
only  the  birthplace  of  the  School;  in  the  summer  of  the 
following  year,  the  chief  Romanticists  found  a  more  congenial 
home  in  Jena.  The  principles  and  aims  of  Romanticism 
were,  in  this  early  period,  vague  and  indefinite — indeed,  the 
Romantic  School  had  virtually  ceased  to  exist  before  clear 
definitions  had  been  formulated  at  all — but,  from  the  first, 
the  School  was  the  centre  for  a  group  of  brilliant  men  and 
hardly  less  brilliant  women,  who  were  drawn  together  by  a 
determination  to  have  done  with  the  utilitarianism  which 
still  flourished  under  the  protection  of  writers  like  Nicolai — 
men  and  women  inspired  by  a  common  idealism,  by  a  craving 
for  a  spiritual,  more  unworldly  poetry  and  art,  and  for  a  form 
of  artistic  expression  that  was  in  harmony  with  life.  The 
Romantic  School,  it  is  true,  ultimately  drifted  into  a  mystic 
Catholicism,  a  blind  worship  of  the  medieval,  a  glorification 
of  "  Volkspoesie,"  all  of  which  tendencies  were  potentially 
present  in  the  movement  from  the  first,  but  some  years 
elapsed  before  these  principles  stiffened  into  dogmas. 

"  Die  romantische  Poesie,"  said  Friedrich  Schlegel  in  one  of 
his  Fragmente,  "ist  eine  progressive  Universalpoesie.  Ihre 
Bestimmung  ist  nicht  bloss,  alle  getrennte  Gattungen  der  Poesie 
wieder  zu  vereinigen,  und  die  Poesie  mit  der  Philosophic  und 
Rhetorik  in  Beriihrung  zu  setzen.  Sie  will,  und  soil  auch  Poesie 
und  Prosa,  Genialitat  und  Kritik,  Kunstpoesie  und  Naturpoesie 
bald  mischen,  bald  verschmelzen,  die  Poesie  lebendigund  gesellig, 
und  das  Leben  und  die  Gesellschaft  poetisch  machen,  den  Witz 
poetisiren,  und  die  Formen  der  Kunst  mit  gediegnem  Bildungs- 
stoffjeder  Art  anfullen  und  sattigen,  und  durch  die  Schwingungen 
des  Humors  beseelen.  Sie  umfasst  alles,  was  nur  poetisch  ist, 
vom  grossten  wieder  mehre  Systeme  in  sich  enthaltenden  Systeme 
der  Kunst,  bis  zu  dem  Seufzer,  dem  Kuss,  den  das  dichtende 
Kind  aushaucht  in  kunstlosen  Gesang."1 

The  humanism  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  been  analytic 
and  objective,  collective  and  cosmopolitan  ;  the  spirit  of  the 
new  movement  was  synthetic  and  subjective,  individualistic 
and  national.  Romanticism  is  the  characteristic  expression 

1  Athenceum,  i,  2  (1798),  28 ;  F.  Schlegel's  Prosaische  Jugendschriften,  ed. 
J.  Minor,  Vienna,  1882,  2,  220. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  417 

of  the  Germanic  temperament,  just  as  that  of  the  Latin  races 
is  associated  with  the  word  "classic." 

The  brothers  Schlegel,  who  were  in  the  first  place  critics 
and  interpreters,  not  poets,  are  the  chief  representatives  of 
Romanticism  in  its  theoretic  and  stimulating  aspects.     They 
came  of  a  notable  literary  family ;  their  father,  Johann  Adolf 
Schlegel,   a    pastor    in    Hanover,    was,    it    will    be    remem- 
bered, a  contributor  to  the  Bremer  Beitriige,  and  their  uncle, 
J.   E.   Schlegel,   Lessing's    most   gifted   forerunner.      August 
Wilhelm,1   the    elder   of    the    two    brothers,    was    born    on  A.  W. 
September  8,  1767,  and  studied  in  Gottingen  under  Heyne  f^^fg1' 
and  Burger,  from  the  latter  of  whom  he  learned  at  least  the 
technicalities  of  verse-writing.     After  three  years  as  a  private 
tutor  in  Amsterdam,  Schlegel  settled  in  1796,  in  Jena,  with 
the  intention  of  living  by  his  pen ;  and  here  his  activity  as 
a  critic  began  in  earnest.     He  was  one  of  the  contributors  to 
the  Horen,  in  which  he  published  a  number  of  critical  essays, 
as  well  as  specimens  of  his  translation  of  Shakespeare.     The 
last-mentioned  work  was  Schlegel's  most  significant  achieve-  shake- 
ment,  and  perhaps,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  significant  of  speare's 
the  whole  Romantic  School.      The  verbal  accuracy  of  the  tische 
translation   is   not  always  irreproachable,  but  the  skill  with    Werke, 
which  each  line  of  the  original  is  rendered  by  an  exactly   1797~I 
corresponding  line,  is  astonishing ;  while  Schlegel's  adaptation 
of  English  blank  verse  to  the  German  iambic  metre  of  five 
feet  led  to  the  general  employment  of  that  metre  for  dramatic 
purposes.      Most  remarkable  is  Schlegel's  ability  to  identify 
himself  with  Shakespeare's   point   of  view ;    his   translation 
reproduces  faithfully  the  atmosphere  and  spirit  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan drama ;  he  has  made  Shakespeare  a  national  poet  of 
the  German  people,  and  this  is,  after  all,  the  highest  tribute 
that  can  be  paid  to  his  work.      Schlegel  himself  translated 
only  seventeen  of  the  plays,  of  which  sixteen  appeared  in  eight 
volumes   between    1797   and   1801,   Richard  III.   following 
nine  years  later.     The  remaining  dramas  were  completed  by 
Graf  Wolf  Baudissin   (1789-1878)  and  by  Tieck's  daughter 
Dorothea  (1799-1 84 1).2 

In  translating  Shakespeare,  Schlegel  had  an  able  assistant 

1  Sammtliche  Werke,  edited  by  E.  Booking,  12  vols.,  Leipzig,  1846-47.     Cp. 
A.  W.  und  F.  Schlegel,  edited  by  O.  F.  Walzel  (D.N.L.,  143  [1892]). 

2  Cp.  M.  Bernays,  Zur  Entstehungsgeschichte  des  Schlegel 'schen  Shakespeare, 
Leipzig,  1872. 

2  D 


4i8 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Caroline 
Schlegel, 
1763-1809. 


A.  W. 


Later  life. 


in  his  wife  Caroline  (1763-1809),  daughter  of  the  Gottingen 
orientalist,  J.  D.  Michaelis.  When  Schlegel  married  her  in 
1796,  Caroline  had  a  checkered  life  behind  her;  and  in  1803, 
they  were  divorced,  whereupon  she  became  the  wife  of  the 
philosopher  Schelling.  The  most  brilliant  and  accomplished 
woman  of  the  Romantic  School,  Caroline  Schlegel  left  no  in- 
dependent literary  work — unless  her  letters l  are  regarded  as 
such — but  her  share  in  her  husband's  writings  was  not  a  small 
one.  The  fine  essay,  Uber  Shakespeares  Romeo  und  Julia,  for 
instance,  which  appeared  in  the  Horen  in  1797,  was  mainly 
by  her,  and  it  is  significant  that  after  her  separation  from 
Schlegel,  he  left  his  edition  of  Shakespeare  to  be  completed 
by  other  hands. 

The  power  of  placing  himself  in  the  position  of  his  original, 
which  made  Schlegel  so  skilful  a  translator,  was  also  the 
secret  of  his  ability  as  a  critic.  With  contributions  to  the 
Horen,  the  Athenaum,  and  other  periodicals,  with  his  lectures 
Uber  schone  Litteratur  und  Kunst  (1801-4),  and  the  still 
more  famous  lectures  delivered  in  Vienna,  Uber  dramatische 
Kunst  und  Litteratur  (published  1809-11),  Schlegel  gradually 
built  up  his  reputation.  He  not  only  gave  Shakespeare  his 
place  in  the  literature  of  the  world,  but  also  awakened  the 
interest  of  the  Germans  in  their  own  earlier  literature.  It  was 
under  Schlegel's  influence  that  Tieck,  in  1803,  edited  Minne- 
lieder  aus  dem  schwabischen  Zettalter,  and  F.  H.  von  der  Hagen 
(1780-1856),  in  1810,  published  his  edition  of  the  Nibe- 
lungenlied  ;  and  no  less  important  were  the  services  rendered 
by  Schlegel  to  German  literature,  in  his  appreciations  and 
translations  of  the  chief  poets  of  the  Latin  races — Cervantes 
and  Camoens,  Dante  and  Calderon. 

In  1804,  on  the  recommendation  of  Goethe,  Madame  de 
Sta'el  appointed  August  Wilhelm  Schlegel,  travelling  com- 
panion and  tutor  to  her  sons ;  with  her  he  visited  Italy  and 
Scandinavia.  In  1813  and  1814,  he  was  secretary  to  the 
Crown  Prince  of  Sweden ;  then  he  rejoined  Madame  de  Sta'el 
at  Coppet  on  Lake  Geneva,  where  he  acted  as  her  adviser 
while  she  wrote  De  fAllemagne  (i8i7),2  the  book  by  which, 

1  Published  by  G.  Waitz  in  Caroline,  Leipzig,  1871,  and  Caroline  und  ihrc 
Freunde,  Leipzig,  1882. 

*  Cp.  for  Schlegel's  share  in  De  I' Allemagne,  O.  F.  Walzel's  study  in 
Forsehnngen  sur  neueren  Litteraturgeschichie.  Festgabe  fur  R.  ffeimel, 
Weimar,  1898,  275  ff. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  419 

at  one  stroke,  German  literature  became  a  force  in  Europe. 
After  Madame  de  Stael's  death  in  1817,  Schlegel  received  a 
professorship  in  the  University  of  Bonn,  which  he  held  until 
his  own  death  in  1845.  The  eccentricities  of  his  later  years 
destroyed  to  a  large  extent  the  respect  of  the  younger  gener- 
ation for  him ;  but  the  oriental  studies  with  which  he  occupied 
himself,  added  considerably  to  his  reputation  as  a  scholar. 
Schlegel's  original  poetry  has  little  or  no  value  ;  it  is  essentially 
the  poetry  of  a  critic.  The  lessons  of  form  which  he  learned 
from  his  old  master,  Burger,  he  never  forgot ;  but  the  in- 
trinsic poetic  worth  of  his  verses  is  not  great.  Besides  shorter 
poems,  first  collected  in  1800  (Gedichte\  Schlegel  wrote  a 
classical  tragedy,  Ion  (1803),  for  which  Goethe  tried  in  vain  to 
win  the  applause  of  the  Weimar  public. 

Friedrich   Schlegel  (born   March    10,    1772;  died   1829)*   Friedrich 

was  not   so  well   balanced  as   his   cooler  and    more   critical  Schlegel, 

1772-1829. 
brother ;  he  was  easily  carried  away  by  enthusiasms  and  new 

theories — in  other  words,  he  had  more  genius,  if  less  talent, 
than  August  Wilhelm.  He,  too,  had  studied  in  Gottingen, 
and  devoted  himself  mainly  to  classical  literature,  on  which, 
from  1794  on,  he  published  several  suggestive  essays  (Die 
Griechen  und  die  Corner,  1796).  The  noteworthy  feature  of 
these  essays  is  their  attempt  to  define — under  the  influence  of 
Schiller's  aesthetic  treatises — the  nature  of  ancient,  as  com- 
pared with  modern,  literature.  An  elaborate  history  of  classi- 
cal poetry,  inspired  by  Winckelmann  and  Herder,  did  not  * 
get  farther  than  the  first  volume  (1798).  Friedrich  Schlegel's 
active  enthusiasm,  however,  was  the  main  factor  in  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Romantic  School ;  he  made  Fichte's  idealism  the 
philosophic  basis  of  the  movement,  and  in  his  brilliant  Frag- 
mente,  contributed  to  the  Athenceum  and  other  reviews,  gave 
the  most  lucid  statement  of  the  Romantic  doctrine.  It  was 
in  the  "  fragment "  that  Friedrich  Schlegel  found  the  channel 
of  expression  congenial  to  him  ;  his  most  stimulating  ideas 
are  presented  in  the  form  of  aphorisms.  In  1799,  he  pub- 
lished a  fragmentary  romance,  Lucinde,  by  far  the  crudest  Lucinde, 
of  all  the  Romantic  novels.  Lucinde  is  an  attempt  to  *799- 
carry  the  Romantic  antagonism  to  boundaries  and  dividing 
lines  into  the  ordinary  relations  of  society.  But  so  far  from 
giving  a  fair  picture  of  the  Romantic  principles  of  life,  it 

1  Sammtliche  \Verke,  2nd  ed.,  15  vols.,  Vienna,  1846. 


420 


THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Oriental 
studies. 


Dorothea 
Schlegel, 
1763-1839. 


Romantic 
criticism. 


caricatures  them ;  instead  of  vindicating  a  higher  spirituality, 
Schlegel  only  advocates  the  freedom  of  passion.  It  is,  how- 
ever, significant  that  this  strange,  morbid  novel  called  forth 
the  commendation  of  an  earnest-minded  thinker  like  Schleier- 
macher,  who,  in  1800,  wrote  a  series  of  Vertraute  Briefe  iiber 
Lucinde.  Friedrich  Schlegel  had  not  even  as  much  creative 
talent  as  his  brother,  and  what  he  had,  was  less  under  critical 
control;  his  tragedy  Alarcos  (1802),  an  imitation  of  Tieck's 
romantic  dramas,  is  inferior  to  August  Wilhelm's  Ion.  As  a 
critic,  however,  Friedrich  Schlegel  supplemented  his  brother's 
work,  first,  by  his  classical  studies,  and  later,  when  he  sought 
the  highest  Romanticism  in  the  literature  of  the  East.  In 
1803,  he  went  to  Paris  to  learn  Sanskrit,  and  the  result  of  his 
studies  was  a  treatise  Uber  die  Sprache  und  Weisheit  der  Indier 
(1808),  the  most  valuable,  or,  at  least,  the  most  stimulating 
of  all  his  writings ;  this  book  was  a  starting-point  both  for  the 
study  of  Indian  philology  and  for  the  science  of  comparative 
philology.  Friedrich  Schlegel's  wife,  Dorothea  (1763-1839), 
a  daughter  of  the  philosopher  Moses  Mendelssohn,  was  of  the 
same  age  as  Caroline  Schlegel,  and  also  one  of  the  prominent 
women  of  the  Romantic  circle;  she  translated  Madame  de 
Stael's  Corinne,  and  wrote  an  unfinished,  but  well-constructed, 
Romantic  novel  called  Florentin  (1801). 

Previous  to  the  Schlegels,  the  critical  study  of  literature  was 
a  modest  department  of  learning,  with  a  prospect,  if  anything, 
narrower  than  that  of  the  political  history  of  the  time ;  in  their 
hands  it  became  a  magnificent  vantage-ground,  from  which 
one  could  look  backwards  into  antiquity  and  medievalism, 
and  far  and  wide  over  the  intellectual  life  of  all  nations.  The 
methods  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  been  critical  and  little 
more ;  the  method  of  the  Schlegels  was  less  critical  than  inter- 
pretative. Their  aim  was  to  reconcile  the  critic  and  the  object 
or  person  criticised ;  author  and  reviewer  were  no  longer  to 
stand  opposed  to  each  other  as  antagonists.  A  critic's  first 
duty  was  not  to  pass  judgment,  but  to  understand,  to  char- 
acterise, to  interpret.  With  this  principle  began  a  new  era 
in  the  history  of  criticism.  The  Schlegels  realised  what 
Herder,  in  his  vague,  enthusiastic  way,  had  dreamt  of;  it 
was  they  who  gave  Goethe's  idea  of  a  "  Weltlitteratur "  sub- 
stantial form.  And  this  idea,  too,  was  Romantic;  for  it 
tended,  with  the  help  of  art  and  poetry,  to  break  down  the 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  421 

boundaries  of  national  prejudices.     Their  Romanticism  made 
the  Schlegels  cosmopolites. 

Johann  Ludwig  Tieck  l  was  the  youngest  of  the  leaders  of  J.  L. 
the  Romantic  School,  but  his  work  illustrates  most  clearly  the  Tieck> 
transition  from  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  to  the  "  Romantik." 
Tieck  was  born  in  Berlin  in  1773,  the  year  of  Goethe's  Gotz 
von  Berlichingen  ;  and  Gotz,  Werther,  and  Die  Rduber  were 
the  favourite  books  of  his  boyhood.  His  own  early  stories, 
when  not  actually  written  to  the  order  of  Nicolai  (Strauss- 
federn,  1795-98),  belong  essentially  to  the  "Sturm  und 
Drang."  The  most  ambitious  of  them  is  the  Geschichte  des 
Herrn  William  Lovell  (1795-96),  a  characteristic  "Sturm  William 
und  Drang"  romance  in  the  form  of  letters,  but  tempered  Lovell> 
by  the  influence  of  Wieland.  Lovell,  a  youth  of  good 
impulses  and  noble  ambitions,  who  is  led  astray  by  an  evil 
friend,  belongs  obviously  to  the  same  class  of  hero  as 
Werther  and  Karl  Moor ;  but  there  is  blood  in  his  veins  that 
was  not  in  theirs;  his  dreamy  melancholy  and  indecision  of 
character  have  an  unmistakably  Romantic  tinge.  The  psy- 
chology of  the  novel,  however,  is  not  convincing,  and  instead 
of  being  tragic,  it  describes  only  crimes  and  horrors.  A  more 
distinctive  and  positive  side  of  Tieck's  genius  is  shown  by 
a  play  with  which,  in  1797,  he  took  Berlin  by  storm,  Der  Dergestie- 
gestiefelte  Kater ;  ein  Kindermdhrchen  in  drey  Akten.  This  Wt*Kater 
Puss  in  Boots  is  the  best  satirical  drama  in  German  literature. 
It  labours,  it  is  true,  under  the  disadvantage  that  Tieck's  satire 
is  purely  literary ;  but  it  did  excellent  service  in  its  time  by 
helping  to  destroy  the  utilitarian  principles  of  the  "Aufklarung" 
and  by  bringing  into  discredit  the  "  moral  "  comedies  of  the 
type  associated  with  Iffland  and  Kotzebue.  A  later  dramatic 
satire,  Prinz  Zerbino  (1799),  although  poetically  more  am- 
bitious than  the  Gestiefelte  Kater,  is  placed  at  a  disadvantage 
by  its  inordinate  length. 

The   Romantic  element  in  Tieck's    nature  was  first  fully 
developed  by  a  companion  of  his  student-days,  W.  H.  Wacken-  w.  H. 
roder  (i773-98),2  who  was  also  a  native  of  Berlin.     Wacken-  w*cken- 
roder  was  one  of  those  gentle,  child-like  souls  to  whom  the  1773-98. 

1  L.  Tieck's  Schriften,  15  yols.,  Berlin,  1828-29.     Cp.  R.   Kopke,  Ludwig 
Tieck,  Leipzig,   1855.      A_  biography  of  Tieck  prefaces  the  selections  from 

Cp.  also  the  selections 

886]. 


422 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Hersenser- 
giessungen, 
1797- 


fiber  die 

Kvnst, 

1799. 


Romantic  School  owes  its  most  stimulating  and  far-reaching 
ideas.  From  his  passionate  love  for  the  beautiful  sprang  his 
conviction  of  the  holy  earnestness  of  art ;  a  life  devoted  to  its 
service  seemed  to  him  the  noblest  life.  This  enthusiasm  for 
art  is  what  makes  the  tiny  volume  of  Herzensergiessungen  eines 
kunstliebendcn  Klosterbruders  (1797)  so  valuable  a  document 
for  the  history  of  the  "  Romantik."  With  the  exception  of 
one  or  two  sketches,  this  book  is  Wackenroder's  work, 
Tieck  being  only  responsible  for  the  editing,  but  after 
Wackenroder's  early  death  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  his 
Phantasien  friend  published  a  continuation,  Phantasien  iiber  die  Kunst 
(1799),  to  which  he  contributed  about  half  the  contents. 
These  two  little  books  contain  the  earliest  expression  of  the 
Romantic  aesthetics :  here  art  is  holy,  art  is  divine ;  it  is 
a  religion  founded  upon  the  fervent  enthusiasm  of  sensitive 
souls.  Warmly,  however,  as  Wackenroder  loved  Diirer  and 
Raphael,  music  was  the  art  with  which  he  was  most  in 
sympathy;  music  is  "das  Land  des  Glaubens,  wo  alle  unsre 
Zweifel  und  unsre  Leiden  sich  in  ein  tonendes  Meer  verlieren." 
And  in  the  same  spirit,  Tieck  sings : — 

"  Liebe  denkt  in  siissen  Tonen, 
Denn  Gedanken  stehn  zu  fern, 
Nur  in  Tonen  mag  sie  gern 
Alles,  was  sie  will,  verschonen. 
Drum  ist  ewig  uns  zugegen, 
Wenn  Musik  mit  Klangen  spricht, 
Ihr  die  Sprache  nicht  gebricht, 
Holde  Lieb'  auf  alien  Wegen  ; 
Liebe  kann  sich  nicht  bewegen, 
Leiliet  sie  den  Othem  nicht."1 

Thus,  at  the  very  outset,  the  Romantic  conception  of  art  came 
into  conflict  with  the  classical  ideals  for  which  Goethe  had 
fought  since  his  residence  in  Italy,  and  they  also  in  great 
measure  undid  what  Lessing  had  achieved  in  the  previous 
generation.  In  the  glow  of  Romantic  enthusiasm,  the 
hard-and-fast  boundaries  which  the  Laokoon  had  established 
between  poetry  and  the  other  arts,  melted  away,  and  con- 
fusion reigned  once  more ;  tones,  colours,  words  were,  in  the 
eyes  of  these  young  poets  and  critics,  but  different  forms 
of  the  one  language  of  the  soul. 

The  most  considerable  outcome  of  Tieck  and  Wackenroder's 

1  Cp.  Phantasien  iiber  die  Kunst,  1799,  150  and  246. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  423 

joint-authorship  was  the  romance,  Franz  Sternbalds  Wan-  Franz 
derungen:  eine  altdeutsche  Geschichte>  published  by  Tieck  in 
1798.  This,  the  first  characteristic  novel  of  the  Romantic  ungen, 
School,  was  written  exclusively  by  Tieck,  but  the  plot  and  the  I798< 
ideas  upon  which  it  is  based  date  back  to  the  excursions 
which  the  two  friends  made  to  Niirnberg  and  the  Fichtelge- 
birge,  while  students  together  at  Erlangen,  in  1793.  Franz 
Sternbald  is  a  gifted  pupil  of  Durer's  who  sets  out  from 
Niirnberg  upon  his  wanderings,  comes  first  to  Holland,  and 
from  Holland  turns  his  steps  to  Italy.  He  meets  with  com- 
panions by  the  way,  and  love  episodes  are  not  wanting,  but 
little  happens  in  the  book  and  it  remains  unfinished.  To 
Wilhelm  Meister,  the  fountainhead,  as  we  have  seen,  of  the 
entire  fiction  of  the  Romantic  School,1  Franz  Sternbald 
naturally  owes  much  ;  the  minor  characters,  especially  the 
women,  are  close  imitations  of  those  in  Meister,  and  Goethe's 
example  is  the  excuse  for  the  many  lyrics  that  are  inter- 
spersed. At  the  same  time,  the  influence  of  Heinse,  the 
creator  of  the  "  Kunstroman "  in  German  literature,  is  not 
to  be  mistaken.  The  pleasantest  feature  of  the  novel  is  the 
spontaneous,  youthful  freshness  of  the  opening  chapters,  the 
buoyant  delight  in  nature  and  the  reverent  worship  of  art. 
Between  Lovell  and  Sternbald^  might  be  said  to  run  the  line 
that  separates  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  from  Romanticism. 

It  was  Wackenroder  also  who  opened  Tieck's  eyes  to  the  Tieck's 
poetry  that  lay  concealed  in  "  Marchen  "  and  "  Volksbiicher  "  ; 
and  to  Tieck's  interest  in  such  things  we  owe  the  three 
volumes  of  Volksmahrchen  (1797),  which,  besides  the  Gestiefelte 
Kater  and  a  dramatic  "  Ammenmahrchen  "  Ritter  Blaubart, 
contained  two  charming  fairy  tales,  Der  blonde  Eckbert  and 
Die  schone  Magelone.  In  all  these  "  Marchen,"  Tieck  displays 
the  fondness  for  ridiculing  the  creations  of  his  own  imagina- 
tion, which  was  common  to  all  the  members  of  the  School; 
in  fact,  this  so-called  "  Romantic  irony " — which  Tieck  once 
characterised  as  "jene  letzte  Vollendung  eines  Kunstwerks, 
jenen  Athergeist,  der  befriedigt  und  unbefangen  iiber  dem 
Ganzen  schwebt "  2 — was  regarded  by  the  Romanticists  as  the 
most  potent  means  of  heightening  poetic  or  dramatic  effect. 

1  J.  O.  E.  Donner,  Der  Einfiuss  Wilhelm  Meisters  auf  den  Roman  der 
Romantiker,  Berlin,  1893. 

2  Cp.  H.  Hettner,  Die  Romantische  Schule,  Brunswick,  1850,  65. 


424  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

Tieck's  next  fairy  tales,  Der  getreue  Eckart  and  Historic 
von  der  Melusina,  were  published,  together  with  the  dramas, 
Genoveva  and  Rothkdppchen,  in  the  Romantischen  Dichtungen 
(1799-1800),  Der  Runenberg  in  1804.  There  is  little  here 
of  the  naive  tone  of  the  true  "  Volksmarchen,"  which  the 
brothers  Grimm  caught  in  their  Kinder-  und  Hausmiirchen  ; 
but  Tieck  is  not  wanting  in  naivete  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  revels 
in  the  supernatural  like  a  child,  although  in  a  peculiarly 
Romantic  way.  The  forest,  the  "  Waldeinsamkeit "  of  Eck- 
bert,  the  birds,  the  sea,  the  sky,  all  enter  into  a  mystic, 
poetic  relation  with  human  life ;  and  the  moods  and  feelings 
of  the  personages  are  reflected  in  the  nature  around  them. 
Genoveva,  Tieck's  most  ambitious  works,  as  a  dramatic  poet,  are  the 
*799-  two  "  Marchendramen,"  Leben  und  Tod  der  heiligen  Genoveva 

(1799)  and  Kaiser  Octavianus  (1804).  The  "  Stiirmer  und 
Dranger"  Maler  Muller  had,  it  will  be  remembered,  drama- 
tised the  story  of  the  unhappy  Pfalzgrafin  Genoveva,  who, 
in  her  husband's  absence,  awakens  a  passion  in  the  faithless 
Golo,  and  dies  the  victim  of  his  revenge.  Miiller's  play  came 
into  Tieck's  hands  in  MS.  in  1797,  and  undoubtedly  sug- 
gested the  subject  to  him ;  but  there  is  no  resemblance  be- 
tween the  two  works  except  in  a  few  lines  of  a  song.  Tieck's 
Genoveva  is  a  typically  Romantic  poem ;  it  is  a  drama 
without  action.  The  story  is  unrolled  as  on  a  tapestry 
over  which  plays  the  changing  light  of  all  the  influences 
— Shakespeare,  Calderon,  religious  mysticism  —  which  had 
moulded  the  poet's  individuality.  The  language,  although 
defective  in  dramatic  qualities,  is  resplendent  with  music  and 
imagery ;  and  wherever  the  scene  may  be — on  the  battlefield, 
in  a  castle-dungeon  or  in  a  garden  flooded  with  moonlight,  it 
is  invariably  enveloped  in  a  soft  Romantic  haze. 

Kaiser  Oc-  Kaiser  Octavianus,  which  is  also  based  on  a  "  Volksbuch," 
'i8oA.nUS'  an(*  g°es  a  step  further  than  Genoveva,  is  the  best  example 
of  the  fantastic  trend  in  Tieck's  poetry.  Kaiser  Octavianus 
is  a  medieval  mystery,  or,  at  least,  a  drama  that  plays  amidst 
the  Romantic  medievalism  which  Tieck  and  Novalis  distilled 
from  the  painting  and  literature  of  the  middle  ages.  In  out- 
line, the  drama  is  similar  to  Genoveva,  but  it  is  conceived  in  a 
more  epic  spirit  than  its  predecessor,  the  personal  history  of 
the  hero  being  merely  an  episode  in  the  whole.  Kaiser 
Octavianus  is  virtually  an  allegorical  history  of  the  rise  of 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


425 


Christianity,  and  its  object  is  to  show  how  dissension  amongst 
the  heathen  peoples  disappeared  before  the  beneficent  influ- 
ence of  the  Christian  Church.  The  scene  of  the  drama, 
which  culminates  in  a  glorification  of  the  middle  ages,  is 
virtually  the  whole  medieval  world,  and  its  personages  include 
all  types  of  that  world  from  prince  to  peasant,  from  chivalrous 
knight  to  sanguinary  Turk.  That  such  a  subject  is  too  com- 
prehensive for  dramatic  treatment,  even  in  the  four  hundred 
pages  which  Octavianus  occupies  in  Tieck's  works,  is  suffi- 
ciently obvious,  and  Tieck  does  not  even  attempt  to  write 
a  real  drama;  he  is  content  to  supply  merely  a  framework 
for  the  restless,  ever-changing  play  of  his  poetic  moods. 
Kaiser  Octavianus  begins  with  a  prologue,  Der  Aufzug  der 
Romanze,  and  "  Romanze,"  as  a  personification  of  the  Rom- 
antic spirit,  acts  as  a  chorus  in  the  drama  itself.  This  open- 
ing allegory  embodies,  in  somewhat  confused  form,  the  essen- 
tials of  Tieck's  poetic  faith ;  the  great  Romantic  virtues, 
Love  and  Faith,  Humour  and  Valour,  are  grouped  among 
the  knights  and  shepherds,  pilgrims  and  wanderers  of  an  ideal 
world.  In  this  poem  occur  the  lines  which  have  become  one 
of  the  mottoes  of  the  School : — 

"  Mondbeglanzte  Zaubernacht, 
Die  den  Sinn  gefangen  halt, 
Wundervolle  Marchenwelt, 
Steig'  auf  in  der  alten  Pracht." l 

Between    1799   and    1801,   Tieck   published  an    excellent 
translation   of  Don   Quixote,  and   between    1812    and    1816, 
under  the  title  Phaniasus,  he  collected  his  earlier  Romantic  Phantasus, 
stories,  and  embedded  them  in  a  connecting  narrative.     Long,   l812'16- 
however,  before  the  publication  of  Phantasus,  the  purely  Rom- 
antic period  in  Tieck's  life  had  come  to  a  close;  in  1804,  he 
went  to  Rome,  and  did  not  return  to  Germany  until  1806. 

Wackenroder  was  not  the  only  gentle  nature  that  clung  to 
Tieck,  as  a  tender  plant  to  a  strong  branch ;  a  greater  .than   F  von 
Wackenroder,    Friedrich   von    Hardenberg,   also    sought    and   Harden- 
found  support  in  Tieck's  robuster  character.2     Born  in  1772,   If^vali  " 
Hardenberg,    better   known    by  his  pseudonym    of  Novalis,   1772-1801'. 

1  Schriften,  i,  33. 

2  Novalis  Schriflen,  edited  by  E.  Heilborn,  3  vols.,  Berlin,  1901.     Cp.  A. 
Schubart,  Novalis'  Leben,   Dichtcn   und  Denktn,  Giitersloh,   1887 ;   J.  Bing, 
Novalis,   Hamburg,   1893;    E.   Heilborn,  Novalis,  der  Romantiker,   Berlin, 
1901. 


426  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

grew  up  in  an  intensely  religious  home.  During  his  student- 
days  at  Jena,  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Schiller  and 
Reinhold,  and,  in  Leipzig,  made  the  acquaintance  of  Fried- 
rich  Schlegel.  In  1792,  he  went  to  Wittenberg  to  study  law, 
and,  in  1794,  settled  at  Tennstadt,  near  Langensalza.  Here 
his  poetic  genius  was  awakened  by  a  passion  for  a  girl  who, 
like  Dante's  Beatrice,  had  not  passed  the  years  of  childhood. 
Sophie  von  Kiihn  was  only  twelve  years  of  age  when  Novalis 
first  saw  her,  and  in  1797  she  died.  The  blow  to  the  poet's 
sensitive  nature  was  overpowering,  and  from  his  sorrow  sprang 
Hymnen  the  Hyninen  an  die  Nacht  (1800),  which  contain  some  of  the 
Mzfl/  most  spiritual  poetry  in  the  German  tongue.  Never  has  re- 
1800.  '  ligion  blended  more  perfectly  with  personal  grief  and  bereave- 
ment than  in  these  outpourings  of  the  soul,  in  which  the 
"  holy,  inexpressible,  mysterious  Night "  symbolises  the  Nir- 
vana of  earthly  sufferings.  These  hymns,  which  are,  for  the 
most  part,  in  rhythmical  prose,  contain  the  poetic  essence  of 
Jakob  Bohme's  mysticism. 

"  Was  haltst  du,  Nacht,  unter  deinem  Mantel,  das  mir  unsicht- 
bar  kraftig  an  die  Seele  geht  ?  Kostlicher  Balsam  trauft  aus  deiner 
Hand,  aus  dem  Biindel  Mohn.  Die  schweren  Fliigel  des  Gemiiths 
hebst  du  empor.  .  .  .  Wie  arm  und  kindisch  diinkt  mir  das  Licht 
nun— wie  erfreulich  und  gesegnet  des  Tages  Abschied.  .  .  . 
Himmlischer,  als  jene  blitzenden  Stenie,  diinken  uns  die  unend- 
lichen  Augen,  die  die  Nacht  in  uns  geoffhet.  Welter  sehn  sie, 
als  die  blassesten  jener  zahllosen  Heere — unbediirftig  des  Lichts 
durchschaun  sie  die  Tiefen  eines  liebenden  Gemiiths— was  einen 
hohern  Raum  mit  unsaglicher  Wollust  fullt.  Preis  der  Weltkoni- 
ginn,  der  hohen  Verkiindigerinn  heiliger  Welten,  der  Pflegcrinn 
seliger  Liebe  —  sie  sendet  mir  dich  —  zarte  Geliebte  —  liebliche 
Sonne  der  Nacht."1 

It  seemed  an  example  of  that  irony  which  the  Romanticists 
saw  behind  all  life  and  endeavour,  that  the  death  Novalis 
desired  so  intensely  in  his  sorrow  should  have  come  a  few 
years  later,  at  a  time  when  love  had  again  brought  zest  into 
his  life,  and  when  the  friendship  of  Tieck,  whom  he  met  in 
1799,  encouraged  him  to  make  new  plans  of  work.  Con- 
sumption had  set  its  mark  upon  him,  and  on  the  25th  of 
March,  1801,  he  died  from  a  sudden  hemorrhage,  before 
he  had  attained  his  twenty-ninth  year. 

In   Novalis's   Geistliche  Lieder,  the   mystic  fervour  of  the 

1  Schriften,  ed.  E.  Heilborn,  i,  445  f.  ;  cp.  i,  307  t. 


CHAP,  i.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  427 

Hymnen  an  die  Nacht  became  distinctly  Catholic  in  tone, 
while  the  most  definite  expression  of  his  leaning  towards 
Catholicism  is  the  noteworthy  essay  on  Die  Christenheit  oder 
Europa  (1799).  Novalis  also  left  two  prose  romances,  Die 
Lehrlinge  zu  Sais  and  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen  (published 
1802),  both  unfinished.  In  the  former  of  these,  a  glowing 
panegyric  of  nature,  Novalis  veiled  in  poetry  his  own  initia- 
tion at  Freiberg  into  the  wonders  of  natural  science,  under 
the  famous  geologist  A.  G.  Werner.  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen  Heinrich 
is  Novalis's  chief  work  and,  in  many  respects,  the  represent-  ^  °%er 
ative  novel  of  Romanticism.  Like  all  the  romances  of  the  1802. 
School,  its  model  is  Wilhelm  Meister ;  but  the  materials  out 
of  which  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen  is  constructed  are  very 
different  from  the  realities  which,  as  Goethe  once  complained,1 
were  all  he  had  to  work  upon.  The  world  of  Heinrich  von' 
Ofterdingen  is  that  dream-world  of  medievalism,  which  had 
first  been  opened  up  by  Franz  Sternbalds  Wanderutigen  ;  in 
passing,  however,  through  Novalis's  fine  imagination,  it  has 
become  spiritualised :  "  Die  Welt  wird  Traum,  der  Traum 
wird  Welt." 2  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen,  whose  childhood 
has  been  spent  in  Eisenach,  accompanies  his  mother  on  a 
visit  to  his  grandfather  in  Augsburg.  This  journey,  in  the 
course  of  which  they  are  joined  by  merchants  who  discuss 
literature  and  art  with  them,  is  the  beginning  of  Heinrich's 
apprenticeship  to  poetry.  In  Augsburg,  he  chooses  the 
poet  Klingsohr  as  his  master,  and  from  Klingsohr  learns  the 
Romantic  mysteries  of  poetry ;  he  loves  Klingsohr's  daughter, 
Mathilde,  as  the  author  himself  had  loved  Sophie  von  Ku'hn. 
Mathilde  dies,  and,  like  Novalis,  Heinrich  too  finds  con- 
solation in  a  new  love.  The  essential  difference  between 
Wilhelm  Meister  and  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen  is  the  latter's 
self-reliance :  he  is  not  a  blind  seeker  after  the  true  path  of 
his  existence ;  he  begins  life  as  a  poet,  and  with  the  clear 
consciousness  that  he  has  to  find  the  wonderful  "  blue  flower," 
in  which  the  ideals  and  yearnings  of  Romanticism  were  sym- 
bolised. Disenchantments  such  as  Meister  had,  Heinrich  has 
not ;  he  sets  out  to  find  no  asses,  but  a  kingdom,  and  at 
the  unwritten  close  of  the  book,  was  to  have  entered  into 

1  Goethes  Unterhaltungen  mil  dent  Kanzler  F.  von  Miiller,  2nd  ed. ,  Stutt- 
gart, 1898,  96. 

-  ScArtften,  i,  161. 


428 


THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


The  philo- 
sophical 
back- 
ground. 


F.W.J.von 

Schelling, 

1775-1854- 


possession  of  his  inheritance.  Heinrich  -von  Ofterdingen  is 
more  of  a  poetic  "  Marchen  "  than  a  novel ;  as  Novalis  himself 
once  described  it  to  Tieck,  it  is  an  "  apotheosis  of  poetry  " ; 
and  like  Tieck's  Romantic  poems,  but  in  a  higher  degree, 
it  is  suffused  with  the  unreal  light  of  a  purely  imaginary 
world.  "  Die  Scheidewand  zwischen  Fabel  und  Wahrheit, 
zwischen  Vergangenheit  und  Gegenwart  ist  eingefallen :  Glau- 
ben,  Phantasie  und  Poesie  schliessen  die  innerste  Welt  auf." 1 

The  Romantic  literature  was  far  from  being  an  isolated 
phenomenon  in  the  intellectual  movement  of  its  time ;  on  the 
contrary,  philosophy  and  poetry  were  never  so  intimately  as- 
sociated as  in  the  period  under  consideration.  The  poetry 
of  the  Romantic  school  was  the  efflorescence  of  a  spiritual 
revival,  whose  leaders  were  Fichte,  Schelling,  and  Schleier- 
macher.  Of  these,  Fichte  has  already  been  discussed  as  the 
champion  of  the  individualism  on  which  the  movement  was 
based.  But  the  Romantic  philosopher  par  excellence  was  F. 
W.  J.  von  Schelling  (i775-i854),2  whose  influence  on  German 
intellectual  life  was  hardly  less  widespread  than  that  of  Hegel 
or  Schopenhauer.  A  native  of  Wiirtemberg,  Schelling  was  born 
in  1775,  and  after  studying  at  Tubingen  and  Leipzig,  was  ap- 
pointed Professor  of  Philosophy  at  Jena  in  1798.  He  sub- 
sequently occupied  chairs  in  Wiirzburg,  Munich,  and  Berlin, 
where  he  died  in  1854.  The  most  suggestive  and  fruitful  of  his 
writings  are  Ideen  zu  einer  Philosophic  der  Natur  (1797),  Von 
der  Weltseele  (1798),  System  des  transcendentalen  Idealismus 
(1800).  The  reconciling  spirit,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
characteristic  of  Romantic  literature,  is  by  Schelling  carried 
over  into  philosophy.  While  Spinoza  discovered  the  mystery 
of  the  universe  in  an  all-pervading  divine  spirit,  Schelling, 
whose  thought,  after  all,  has  many  points  of  contact  with 
Spinoza's,  regarded  nature  and  spirit  as  but  two  aspects  of 
the  "Weltseele."  The  fundamental  conception  of  his  philos- 
ophy is  stated  in  the  words,  "die  Natur  soil  der  sichtbare 
Geist,  der  Geist  die  unsichtbare  Natur  seyn  " ;  and  the  proof 
of  the  dogma  lies  "in  der  absoluten  Identitat  des  Geistes  in 
uns  und  der  Natur  ausser  uns."  3  Such  a  philosophy  as  Schel- 
ling's,  when  followed  out  to  its  logical  conclusions,  can  only 

1  Tieck's  Nachwort  sum  Ofterdingen  (Novalis,  Schrifien,  i),  190. 

2  Sammtliche  Werke,  14  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1856-61.     Cp.  K.  Fischer,  Schel- 
lings  Leben,  Werke  und  Lehre,  2nd  ed.,  Heidelberg,  1897. 

*  Ideen  zu  einer  Philosophic  der  Natur  (  Werke,  2),  56. 


CHAP.  I.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  429 

lead  to  mysticism.  But  congenial  as  were  these  mystic  tend- 
encies to  the  Romantic  School,  Schelling's  chief  service  to  the 
movement  was  in  bringing  the  aesthetic  theories  of  Roman- 
ticism to  a  focus.  Schelling  proclaimed  art  as  the  highest  of 
all  phenomena,  for  here  alone  was  to  be  found  that  perfect 
blending  of  nature  and  spirit  which  he  sought ;  art  to  him 
was  the  great  harmonising  medium,  in  which  the  contradic- 
tions of  life  and  thought,  nature  and  history,  entirely  dis- 
appeared. Another  prominent  member  of  the  Romantic 
School  was  Schelling's  Scandinavian  apostle,  Henrik  Steffens 
(1773-1845),  who,  attracted  by  Schelling's  reputation,  went  to  Henrik 
Jena  in  1798,  to  study  under  him.  Neither  Steffens'  scien- 
tific  and  philosophic  work  nor  his  long-forgotten  Norwegian 
"Novellen"  demand  notice  in  a  history  of  German  literature, 
but,  in  1840,  he  published  under  the  title  Was  ich  erlebte, 
ten  volumes  of  autobiography,  which  afford  an  excellent  com- 
mentary on  the  literature  of  the  Romantic  period. 

What  Schelling  did  for  the  philosophy  and  aesthetics  of 
Romanticism,  Friedrich  E.  D.  Schleiermacher  (i 768-1834) l 
did  for  its  spiritual  ideas.  The  latter  found  the  life  and  re- 
ligion of  his  time  separated  from  each  other,  even  in  open  F.  E.  D. 
conflict;  and  he  made  it  his  task  to  reconcile  them.  He  ^ 
forced  the  conviction  upon  his  nation  that  religion  was  not  a  1768-1834. 
dry  system  of  dogmas,  but,  in  the  first  instance,  a  personal 
matter,  and  only  another  name  for  higher  feelings  and  aspira- 
tions ;  religion  was  the  true  poetry  of  the  soul.  With  his 
Reden  iiber  die  Religion  (1799)  and  his  Monologe  (1800),  two 
books  which  ring  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  new  century, 
Schleiermacher  awakened  the  religious  consciousness  of  the 
German  people  from  the  torpor  into  which  it  had  sunk  under 
the  long  reign  of  the  "  Aufklarung."  When,  however,  this 
quickening  of  religion  was  reinforced  by  the  mysticism  of 
Schelling  and  the  medievalism  of  Tieck  and  Novalis,  the 
resulting  product  was  rather  a  revival  of  Catholicism  than 
a  deepening  of  Protestantism. 

1  Sammtliche   Werke,  30  vols.,    Berlin,   1836-65.     Cp.  W.   Dilthey,   Leben 
Schleiermachers,  i,  Berlin,  1870. 


430 


CHAPTER    II. 


Romanti- 
cism un- 
favourable 
to  the 
drama. 


ROMANTIC    DRAMA    AND    PATRIOTIC    LYRIC. 

THE  drama  was  the  stepchild  of  Romanticism ;  the  Romantic 
writers  found  the  lyric,  the  novel,  and  even,  in  Slavonic  litera- 
tures, the  epic,  congenial  channels  for  their  ideas,  but  in  Den- 
mark perhaps  alone  did  the  Romantic  drama  stand  on  a  footing 
of  equality  with  other  forms  of  expression.  It  has  already 
been  seen  from  Tieck's  works  with  what  difficulty  the  Rom- 
antic spirit  adapted  itself  to  the  requirements  of  the  theatre. 
The  passivity  of  the  Romantic  creed  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on 
the  other,  its  passionate  craving  to  break  down  the  boundaries 
between  the  arts,  between  art  and  literature,  between  life  and 
literature,  between  nature  and  art,  were  anything  but  favour- 
able to  the  development  of  a  literary  form  which  can  only 
flourish  in  obedience  to  laws  and  draw  nourishment  from  an 
active  conception  of  existence.  In  the  pre-Romantic  days  of 
"Sturm  und  Drang,"  a  living  drama  was  still  possible,  for 
life  was  then  regarded  as  action ;  the  "  Stiirmer  und  Dranger  " 
scorned  the  rules  of  dramatic  construction  even  more  heartily 
than  their  successors,  but  they  firmly  believed  in  the  "  mighty 
deed."  When,  however,  we  turn  to  the  Romantic  School 
with  its  essentially  lyric  ideals  of  poetry,  its  preference  for 
the  passive  aspects  of  life,  we  find  the  drama  reduced  to  a 
mere  shadow  of  its  true  self.  It  is  significant  that  the  greatest 
of  all  the  Romantic  dramatists,  Heinrich  von  Kleist,  wrote  his 
masterpieces  under  the  influence  of  the  patriotism  kindled  in 
German  minds  by  the  tyranny  of  Napoleon. 

If  Tieck  be  left  out  of  consideration,  the  most  exclusively 
Romantic  playwright  of  this  age,  and  the  only  one  who  can 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  43! 

be  compared  with  Kleist,  was  F.  L.  Zacharias  Werner.1     Born  Zacharias 

in  Konigsberg  in  1788,  Werner  led  a  strange,  unbalanced  life;  ^l™^' 

his  biography  reminds  us  of  Goethe's  characterisation  of  J.  G. 

Giinther,  "  Er  wusste  sich  nicht  zu  zahmen,  und  so  zerrann 

ihm  sein  Leben  wie  sein  Dichten." 2     But  it  is  only  fair  to 

recognise  that  Werner  was  cursed  with  a  temperament  which 

made  him  seem  on  the  brink  of  insanity  ;  mental  disease  alone 

can  explain  the  helpless  fashion  in  which  he  tossed  from  one 

extreme  of  the  wildest  debauchery  to  another  of  the  most 

fervid  piety.     His  dissolute,  unsettled  life  at  last  found  rest 

in  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  Church,  he  became  a  priest, 

and,  in  their  day,  his  sermons  were  even  more  popular  than 

his  plays.     He  died  in  Vienna  in  1823.     Werner's  first  drama, 

Die  Sohne  des   Thales,  was  in   two  parts,  Die    Templer  auf  Die  Sohne 

Cypern  (1803)  and  Die  Kreuzes-Brilder  (1804),  each  six  acts  **"  Thales> 

long.      Both  are   mystic  and  symbolic,  and,  notwithstanding 

the  author's  love  for  crass,  theatrical  effects,  have  as  little 

dramatic  life  as  any  of  Tieck's  dramas.     The  subject  is  the 

fall  of  the  Order  of  Templars  and   the  establishment   of  a 

new  order,  the  "  Sons  of  the  Valley,"  in  its  place ;  the  work 

is  thus  one  of  those  allegories  based  on  freemasonry,  in  which 

the  later  eighteenth  century  took  so  warm  an  interest.     The 

first   part   of  what   was   intended   as  a   cycle  of  dramas   on 

Prussian   history,   Das  Kreuz  an  der   Ostsee  (1806),   shows, 

if  we  overlook  the  flimsy  texture  of  many  scenes,  the  influence 

of  Schiller's  rigorous  dramatic  technique.     The  chief  success 

of  Werner's  life  was,  however,  Martin  Luther,  oder  die  Weihe  Martin 

der  Kraft  (1807),  a  drama,  the  subject  of  which  is  Luther's  L™ther> 

life   between    1520   and   1525,    Katharina  von   Bora,  who  is 

made  to  resemble  a  Catholic  saint,  being  the  heroine.     As 

a   historical    drama,   Martin   Luther   has    little    value;    it  is 

effectively  constructed,  and  in  some  of  the  scenes  there  is  a 

mystic  and  Romantic  beauty;    but  Werner  was  already  too 

much  of  a   Catholic   himself  and   too   strongly  in  sympathy 

with  the  movement  in  favour  of  reconciling  Protestantism  and 

Catholicism,   to  do  Luther  justice.      In    1814,   after  having 

finally  renounced  Protestantism,  he  published  a  repudiation  of 

1  Ausgewahlte  Schriften,  15  vols.,  Grimma,  184041 ;   cp.  Das  Schicksals- 
drama,  edited  by  J.  Minor  (D.N.L.,  151  [1884]),  i  ff.  ;   also  J.  Minor,  Die 
Schicksalstragodie  in  ihren  Hauptvertretern,  Frankfurt,  1883,  and  F.  Poppen- 
berg,  Zacharias  Werner,  Berlin,  1893. 

2  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Book  7  (  Wtrke,  27),  81. 


432 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Der  vier- 
•undzwan- 
sigste  Fe- 
bruar, 
1810. 


The 

"Schick- 
salstra- 
godie." 


Adolf 

Mullner, 

1774-1829. 


this  drama,  a  half-lyrical,  half-allegorical  poem,  Die  Weihe  der 
Unkraft.  His  later  dramas,  Attila  (1808),  Wanda  (1810), 
and  Die  Mutter  der  Makkabder  (1820),  are,  without  exception, 
inferior  to  his  earlier  works. 

Werner  was  also  the  author  of  a  one -act  tragedy,  Der 
vierundzwanzigste  Februar  —  produced  on  the  24th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1 8 1  o,  and  published  in  1815  —  which  was  of  more 
moment  for  the  history  of  the  German  drama  than  any  other 
drama  of  its  time.  Der  vierundzwanzigste  Februar  is  the 
first  of  those  "  Schicksalstragodien,"  which,  in  the  course 
of  the  following  decade,  flooded  the  German  stage.  The 
ultimate  origin  of  this  type  of  play  is  to  be  sought  in  Greek 
tragedy,  but  a  less  distant  model  was  an  English  drama,  The 
Fatal  Curiosity,  by  George  Lillo,  the  same  Lillo  who  inspired 
Miss  Sara  Sampson.  As  early  as  1781,  The  Fatal  Curiosity 
had  been  adapted  to  the  German  stage  by  K.  P.  Moritz, 
under  the  title  Blunt,  but  the  time  was  not  then  propitious 
to  the  idea  behind  the  play.  More  than  ten  years  afterwards, 
Tieck,  just  emerging  as  an  author,  wrote  two  "fate"  trage- 
dies, Der  Abschied  and  Karl  von  Berneck ;  but  it  was  Die 
Braut  von  Messina  which  gave  the  "  Schicksalsdrama "  its 
decisive  impulse,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  work  of 
Werner,  Mullner,  and  Houwald.  Schiller's  tragedy,  however, 
lacked  two  features  essential  to  the  real  "  fate  tragedy " ;  in 
the  latter,  not  only  did  a  curse  or  a  prophesied  fate  hang 
over  the  doomed  family,  but  that  fate  was  associated  with  a 
definite  day  and  with  some  fatal  requisite,  usually  a  dagger. 
Werner  chose  the  24th  of  February — a  date  that  had  played 
a  mysterious  role  in  his  own  life — as  the  critical  day  for 
the  Swiss  family  whose  tragic  history  he  unrolls  with  such  a 
command  of  weird  effects.  Slight  as  it  is,  Der  vierundzwan- 
zigste Februar  is  Werner's  masterpiece. 

The  success  of  Der  vierundzwanzigste  Februar  tempted 
Adolf  Mullner  (1774-1829), x  an  advocate  of  Weissenfels,  who 
had  hitherto  written  several  comedies  on  French  lines,  for  an 
amateur  theatre  in  Weissenfels,  to  follow  in  Werner's  foot- 
steps. In  1812,  Mullner  wrote,  with  the  obvious  intention  of 
surpassing  his  predecessor,  Der  neunundzwanzigste  Februar,  a 
play  which  contains  horrors  in  plenty,  but  little  real  tragedy. 
Milliner's  model,  it  is  true,  was  also  not  free  from  this  fault, 

1  Dramatische  Werke,  8  vols.,  Brunswick,  1828;  cp.  D.N.L.,  151,  293  ff. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  433 

but  Werner  was  poet  enough  to  be  able  to  some  extent  to 
justify  his  means ;  in  Miillner,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was 
little  of  the  poet ;  he  loved  the  horrible  for  its  own  sake.  In 
the  following  year,  Milliner's  best-known  play,  Die  Schuld,  was  Die 
produced  in  Vienna,  and  was  soon  to  be  seen  in  all  German 
theatres.  The  plot  of  this  typical  "  Schicksalstragodie "  is 
laid  in  Spain ;  it  is  the  familiar  story  of  a  young  man,  who, 
according  to  a  prophecy,  is  destined  to  kill  his  brother.  To 
defeat  the  ends  of  fate,  his  mother  brings  him  up  in  the  north 
of  Europe.  Years  later,  he  returns  to  Spain,  loves  a  certain 
Elvira,  and,  in  order  to  be  able  to  marry  her,  kills  her  husband 
while  they  are  hunting  together,  the  dead  man  proving,  of 
course,  to  be  his  brother.  Although  an  indifferent  drama  from 
a  poetic  point  of  view,  Die  Schuld  is  skilfully  put  together : 
as  has  been  well  said,  it  is  the  work  of  a  criminal  jurist ; 
but  the  gulf  that  separates  it  from  the  greatest  of  all  the 
"  Schicksalsdramen,"  from  Grillparzer's  Ahnfrau  (1817),  a  play 
to  which  Die  Schuld  bequeathed  at  least  its  trochaic  measure, 
is  a  wide  one.  Of  Milliner's  other  tragedies,  Kijnig  Yngurd 
(1817),  for  the  hero  of  which  Napoleon  evidently  lent  some 
traits,  is  noticeable  as  an  attempt  to  write  a  classical  iambic 
tragedy — although,  after  all,  Konig  Yngurd  also  is  essentially 
a  "fate  drama" — and  in  Die  Albaneserin  (1820),  his  next 
work,  he  endeavours  to  rival  Houwald  in  a  sentimental  style 
that  was  foreign  to  his  temperament.  After  this  play,  Milliner 
wrote  no  more  for  the  stage,  and,  in  his  later  years,  devoted 
himself  entirely  to  journalism. 

C.  E.  von  Houwald  (I778-I845),1  the  only  other  "fate  C.  E.  von 
dramatist "  whose  name  finds  a  place  in  literary  history, 
was  the  least  gifted  of  the  three.  He  continued  the  line  of 
homely,  mediocre  pieces  which  had  been  begun  by  the  early 
Saxon  playwrights ;  in  other  words,  he  supplied  the  German 
stage  with  the  kind  of  play  which,  in  the  generation  before 
him,  C.  F.  Weisse  had  written  with  so  little  effort.  Houwald's 
own  tastes  were  sentimental ;  the  gruesome  had  little  attraction 
for  him ;  consequently  his  imitation  of  the  dramatic  methods 
of  Werner  and  Milliner  is  artificial,  and  sometimes  even 
ludicrous.  His  two  best-known  pieces,  Das  Bild  and  Der 
Leuchtthurm,  both  published  in  1821,  are  examples  of  the 
"Schicksalstragodie"  in  its  decline. 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  5  vols.,  Leipzig,  1851.     Cp.  D.N.L.,  151,  457  ff. 

2  E 


434 


THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Heinrich 
von  Kleist, 
1777-1811. 


Die 

Familie 
Schroffen- 
stein, 1803. 


Amphi- 
tryon, 
1807. 


Penthe- 
silea,  1808. 


A  poet  of  a  very  different  order  from  these  "  fate  dramatists  " 
was  Bernd  Heinrich  Wilhelm  von  Kleist,1  the  most  original 
dramatist  that  North  Germany  has  ever  produced.  While  the 
"  Schicksalsdrama "  harmonised  with  the  passive  intellectual 
temper  of  the  German  nation,  as  it  lay  humiliated  at  Napoleon's 
feet,  the  manlier  genius  of  Kleist  was  fired  by  that  patriotic 
spirit  which  burst  forth  irresistibly  in  the  War  of  Liberation. 
Kleist  is  an  enigmatic,  even  an  unsympathetic,  figure.  Born  at 
Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  on  October  18,  1777,  he  grew  up  in 
military  surroundings  which  were  even  more  distasteful  to  him 
than  they  had  been  to  the  Kleist  who  wrote  Der  Friihling. 
Restless,  dissatisfied  with  the  career  that  had  been  chosen  for 
him,  haunted  by  woes  real  and  imaginary,  Kleist  wandered  to 
Paris,  and  from  Paris  to  Switzerland,  so  that  the  new  century 
had  begun  before  he  had  made  any  definite  plans  for  his 
future,  or  even  realised  that  he  was  a  poet.  His  first  work,  Die 
Familie  Schroffenstein  (1803),  is  an  expression  of  the  discord 
that  existed  in  the  poet's  own  nature ;  it  contains,  in  concen- 
trated form,  Kleist's  "  Sturm  und  Drang."  Questions  hurled 
in  the  face  of  Destiny,  doubts  of  the  goodness  of  Providence, 
idyllic  charm  and  crude  Romantic  horrors — the  latter  sug- 
gestive of  the  coming  "  Fate  drama  " — these  are  the  character- 
istics of  Die  Familie  Schroffenstein.  But  there  is  much  rugged, 
untutored  strength  in  the  drama,  and  its  primitive,  unreflecting 
ethics  recalls  Kleist's  model,  Shakespeare,  rather  than  the 
national  dramatist  Schiller.  Amphitryon  (1807),  a  version 
of  Moliere's  comedy  of  that  name,  in  the  style  and  spirit 
of  the  "  Romantik,"  was  Kleist's  next  published  work.  But 
at  this  time  he  was  chiefly  occupied  with  Robert  Guiskard,  a 
drama  in  which  he  set  before  himself  the  aim  of  Schiller's 
later  dramas,  namely,  a  union  of  ancient  tragedy  with  the 
Shakespearian  drama  of  character.  Disheartened,  however, 
with  the  progress  of  Robert  Guiskard,  he  destroyed  his  manu- 
script, and  only  a  few  fragments  have  been  preserved.  In 
1808,  Penthesilea  appeared,  and  was  received  with  scant 
approval  by  the  reading  world.  Yet  this  play  contains  some 
of  Kleist's  most  subtle  poetry;  here  we  find  for  the  first  time 
that  intensity  of  feeling  characteristic  of  the  poet's  best  work, 
and  the  unrelieved  grimness  of  his  tragic  conflicts.  Penthesilea 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  edited  by  T.  Zolling,  4  vols.  (D.N.L.,  149-150  [1885]). 
Cp.  O.  Brahm,  Heinrich  von  Kleist,  3rd  ed. ,  Berlin,  1892. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


435 


is  not  a  regular  tragedy ;  it  is  not  divided,  or  even  divisible, 
into  acts.  It  contains  only  a  single  conflict,  that  between 
Achilles  and  the  Amazonian  queen,  who  slays  Achilles,  in  the 
belief  that  he  scorns  her  love ;  but  the  intensity  of  Penthesilea's 
hate  and  scorn  is  superhuman.  At  the  same  time,  the  drama 
aims,  outwardly  at  least,  at  the  ideal  which  the  poet  of  Robert 
Guiskard  had  kept  before  him  ;  it  is  a  picture  of  the  Homeric 
age  seen  by  the  lurid  light  of  Romanticism. 

On  the  2nd  of  March,  1808,  Kleist's  one-act  comedy,  Der  Derzer- 
zerbrochene  Krug,  was  produced  without  success  in  Weimar.   b™chene 
Goethe,  who  divided  it  into  three  acts,  may,  as  Kleist  himself  1808.' 
thought,   have    been    to   blame   for    the   failure,   but   it   was 
more    likely    due    to    the    unusual    character    of    the    play. 
Written  round  a  picture  of  the  Dutch  School,  Der  zerbrochene 
Krug  is  itself  such  a  picture.     It  is  an  unpretentious  descrip- 
tion of  a  village  trial  over  a  broken  jar;  the  incident  nearly 
separates  two  lovers  and  ends  by  unmasking  the  village  judge 
as  the  real  delinquent.     Der  zerbrochene  Krug  is  thus  a  drama 
with  little  progressive  action ;  but  it  contains  a  series  of  clearly 
cut  dramatic  portraits,  full  of  humour  and  character,  which  are 
alone  sufficient  to  make  it  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  German 
comedy. 

Das  Kdthchen  von  Heilbronn,  oder  die  Feuerprobe  (1810),  is  Kathchen 
Kleist's  most  popular  drama.     The  author  describes  it  as  "  em  v°n  Heil~ 

.  .  .  .  .  oronn, 

grosses  historisches  Ritterschauspiel,"  that  is  to  say,  it  is  a  1810. 
"  Ritterdrama  "  of  the  later  "  Sturm  und  Drang  "  placed  in  a 
Romantic  milieu.  The  rattle  of  arms  and  the  clank  of  horses' 
feet  re-echo  through  the  play ;  a  scene  before  the  "  Vehm- 
gericht"  recalls  Gotz  von  Berlichingen ;  noble  knights  and 
ladies,  the  Kaiser  himself,  add  historical  colouring  to  the 
picture,  and  amidst  the  medieval  paraphernalia  stands  the 
charming  figure  of  Kathchen  : — 

"  Ging  sie  in  ihrem  biirgerlichen  Schmuck  iiber  die  Strasse,  den 
Strohhut  auf,  von  gelbem  Lack  ergliinzend,  das  schwarzsummtene 
Leibchen,  das  ihre  Brust  umschloss,  mit  feinen  Silberkettlein 
behangt,  so  lief  es  fliisternd  von  alien  Fenstern  herab  :  das  ist  das 
Kathchen  von  Heilbronn ;  das  Kathchen  von  Heilbronn,  ihr 
Herren,  als  ob  der  Himmel  von  Schwaben  sie  erzeugt,  und  von 
seinem  Kuss  geschwangert,  die  Stadt,  die  unter  ihm  liegt,  sie 
gebohren  hatte."1 


1  Act  i,  scene  i  (T.  Zolling's  edition,  3,  5). 


436  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

This  simple  Swabian  girl  is  bewitched  with  love  for  a  knight, 
Wetter  vom  Strahl ;  she  follows  him  like  a  dog,  sleeps  with 
his  horse,  and  is  ready  to  obey  his  lightest  wish.  Kathchen's 
presumptive  father,  an  armourer  in  Heilbronn,  accuses  Wetter 
vom  Strahl  before  the  Holy  Vehm  of  being  a  sorcerer,  but 
Kathchen's  words  convince  the  judges  of  his  innocence.  In 
the  burning  castle  of  Thurneck  she  undergoes  the  "  Feuer- 
probe"  for  him,  and  ultimately  saves  him  from  a  marriage 
with  the  false  Kunigunde  von  Thurneck.  The  Kaiser  re- 
cognises in  her  his  own  daughter,  whereupon  she  becomes 
the  wife  of  the  Ritter  vom  Strahl.  The  drama  itself,  if  the 
vigorous  Shakespearian  speech  be  excepted,  is  not  a  good 
example  of  Kleist's  powers,  or  even  of  the  "  Ritterdrama " ; 
the  scenes  are  loosely  connected  and  the  action  is  weakened 
by  irrelevant  episodes ;  but  Kleist  has  expended  all  his  wealth 
of  poetry  upon  his  heroine.  He  has  written  stronger  scenes, 
but  none  more  beautiful  than  that  in  the  fourth  act,  where 
Kathchen  sleeps  under  the  elder-tree. 

In  the  same  year  as  Kathchen  von  Heilbronn  appeared 
Michael  the  powerful  romance,  Michael  Kohlhaas,  the  first  and  most 
Kohlhaas,  ambitious  of  a  series  of  eight  Erzahlungen,  which  were 
published  in  two  volumes  in  1810  and  the  following  year. 
Except  for  a  concession  to  the  Romantic  taste  of  the  time 
towards  the  close  of  the  novel,  Michael  Kohlhaas  is  a 
masterpiece  of  straightforward,  realistic  narrative ;  no  other 
German  story  of  its  age  is  still,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century,  so  modern  in  its  ideas  and  point  of  view. 
Kohlhaas  is  a  law-abiding  horse-dealer  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  whose  horses  are  illegally  detained  and  misused 
by  a  nobleman.  He  first  seeks  legal  means  of  redress,  but 
the  law  supports  the  law-breaker;  nothing  is  to  be  obtained 
by  peaceful  means.  Justice,  however,  Kohlhaas  is  resolved 
to  have,  even  though  he  devotes  his  life  to  that  object.  With 
cool  but  grim  determination  he  sets  to  work,  and  does  not  rest 
until  he  has  involved  the  country  in  the  terrors  of  a  civil  war. 
But  he  gains  his  end;  his  horses  are  returned  to  him  in 
the  condition  in  which  they  were  taken  from  him ;  and 
he  himself  lays  his  head  upon  the  block  as  a  rebel  and  a 
criminal,  with  the  consciousness  that  he  has  helped  to  lessen 
the  injustice  of  the  world.  The  spirit  that  breathes  through 
Michael  Kohlhaas  is  very  different  from  the  mysticism  of 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  437 

Tieck  and  Werner.  Crushed  under  the  heel  of  Napoleon, 
the  German  peoples  were  beginning  to  waken  to  a  sense  of 
national  pride ;  the  Napoleonic  invasion  had  rudely  shaken 
them  out  of  their  Romantic  dreams.  They  saw  that  high 
ideals  alone  are  not  sufficient  to  make  a  nation  great;  they 
must  first  be  converted  into  deeds.  Although  the  revolt 
against  Napoleon  had  little  in  common  with  the  passive 
unworldliness  of  the  Romantic  School,  it  was,  none  the  less, 
a  natural  development  of  the  individualistic  trend  in  Roman- 
ticism ;  unmistakable  in  Michael  Kohlhaas,  the  national 
spirit  appears  still  more  plainly  in  Kleist's  next  work, 
Die  Hermannsschlacht,  which  was  written  in  1808,  but  not 
published  until  1821. 

Die  Hermannsschlacht  is  a  tragedy  of  that  full-blooded  hate  Die  Her- 
which  the  poets  of  the  Renaissance  could  describe  so  well.   ™Mackt 
Klopstock,  it  will  be  remembered,  once  vainly  tried  to  give  1808 
dramatic  life  to  the  defeat  of  Varus  and  his  Roman  legions  (l821)- 
in  the  year  9,  by  Arminius  or  Hermann.      Kleist  is  more  suc- 
cessful, although  hardly  more  faithful  to  history,  than  Klop- 
stock ;  only  the  intensity  of  the  passions  in  Die  Hermanns- 
schlacht is  primitive ;  in  other  respects,  the  play  is  a  manifesto 
of  German  patriotism.     Rome  is  France,  and  the  land  of  the 
Cheruskians  Germany,  Kleist  concerning  himself  as  little  with 
archaeological  accuracy  here  as   in  Kdthchen  von  Heilbronn. 
More   serious   flaws  are  the  unheroic  craftiness  of  Hermann 
and    the    brutality   of  Thusnelda's    revenge    on    the    Roman 
legate,  Ventidius.     But,  as  the  German  people  realised  when 
the  drama  was  revived  after  the  Franco-German  War,  its  mag- 
nificent patriotism  atones  for  the  unevenness  in  its  composi- 
tion.    Of  the  many  attempts  in  German  literature  to  make 
Arminius  a  dramatic   hero,   none    comes  within    measurable 
distance  of  this. 

Kleist's    last    drama,    Der    Prinz    von    Homburg    (1810),   Der  Prim 
maintains  the  highest  level  of  all  his  works.      He  again  takes  ?Wf  H°'"~ 

...  "  .  .    .  ,.  btirg.  1810 

a  poets  licence  in  not  adhering  rigidly  to  the  traditions — at  (1821). 
best  somewhat  apocryphal — of  Prince  Friedrich  of  Homburg, 
who,  in  1675,  gained  the  victory  of  Fehrbellin  in  disobedience 
to  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg^  orders;  but  he  has  created 
an  admirable  historical  drama,  the  only  great  historical  drama 
of  which  Prussia  can  boast.  Condemned  by  a  court-martial, 
Prince  Friedrich  shows  a  cowardly  fear  of  death  :  the  Elector 


438  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

refuses  to  listen,  not  only  to  the  intercession  of  his  niece 
Nathalie,  who  loves  the  Prince,  but  even  to  that  of  the 
whole  army.  He  places  the  decision  in  the  Prince's  own 
hands,  whereupon  Friedrich  again  becomes  a  man  ;  he  recog- 
nises the  justice  of  his  sentence,  and,  by  doing  so,  wins  the 
Elector's  pardon.  Characters  like  the  Kurfiirst  and  the  "  alte 
Kottwitz,"  are  masterly  examples  of  dramatic  portraiture, 
while  the  battle  scenes  are  modelled  on  those  in  Shake- 
speare's histories.  The  Prince  of  Homburg  is  the  most 
convincing  of  Kleist's  male  figures,  and  one  that  is  not 
unworthy  to  stand  beside  Grillparzer's  heroes.  In  his  other 
plays,  Kleist  is  always  something  of  an  idealist;  he  loved 
to  project,  as  upon  a  screen,  his  own  dreams.  Kathchen, 
for  instance,  is  little  else  than  an  ideal  love  of  his  brain ; 
the  Ritter  vom  Strahl  is  less  Kleist  as  he  was,  than  the  man 
the  poet  aspired  to  be.  But  the  problematical  Prince  of 
Homburg  is  Kleist;  like  his  hero,  Kleist  was  at  the  mercy 
of  the  conflicts  in  his  soul;  he,  too,  was  half  a  hero,  half 
a  coward ;  at  one  time  a  dreamer,  at  another  a  man  of 
daring  action ;  and  in  this,  his  last  drama,  he  was  unquestion- 
ably truest  to  human  nature. 

But  upon  Kleist  lay  the  disease  of  the  age;  the  inward 
harmony  of  mind  and  soul,  which  he  always  hoped  to  attain, 
was  denied  him.  From  the  beginning,  his  life  was  a  tragedy 
to  him  ;  tragic  was  the  long  pursuit  of  a  happiness  that  seemed 
to  recede  as  he  approached  it ;  his  unhappy  love  was  tragic ; 
the  lack  of  recognition,  especially  on  the  part  of  Goethe, 
whose  commendation  would  have  outweighed  a  nation's  ap- 
plause, most  tragic  of  all.  And  so,  one  November  afternoon 
in  1811,  the  most  gifted  dramatist  of  Northern  Germany 
shot  himself  on  the  shores  of  the  Wannsee,  near  Potsdam, 
having  just  completed  his  thirty-fourth  year. 

The  disasters  of  Napoleon's  Russian  campaign,  followed  by 
the  King  of  Prussia's  appeal  to  his  people  on  March  17,  1813, 
gave  the  signal  for  a  general  uprising  against  the  oppressor. 
The  patriotism  which  was  struggling  for  expression  in  works 
like  the  Hermannsschlacht,  suddenly  burst  into  action ;  the 
nation  showed  that  it  had  not  listened  in  vain  to  Kant's 
lofty  moralising  and  Fichte's  stirring  addresses ;  indeed,  never 
before  in  its  history  did  the  German  people  feel  and  act 
with  such  complete  unanimity  as  at  this  time.  And  their 


CHAP,  ll.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  439 

fervid   patriotism   resulted   in   a    lyric   outburst   which,   for  a  Patriotic 
time,   pressed   the    Romantic    poetry   of  sentiment    into    the  Ly"c- 
background.      Foremost  among  these  patriotic  singers  stand 
Korner,  Arndt,  and  Schenkendorf. 

Karl  Theodor  Korner  (1791-1813 )/  whose  heroic  death  K.  T. 
in  the  ranks  of  Liitzow's  volunteer  corps  made  him  a  I7Q™i8i 
popular  hero,  was  a  son  of  C.  G.  Korner,  Schiller's  friend. 
Although  only  twenty -three  at  his  death,  he  had  won  a 
certain  reputation  as  dramatist,  his  best  play,  Zriny^  having 
been  produced  in  Vienna  at  the  end  of  1812.  But  Korner 
wrote  too  hastily;  his  dramas  are  now  forgotten,  and  he  is 
remembered  only  as  a  patriotic  singer.  In  1810,  he  pub- 
lished his  first  volume  of  poems,  Knospen,  which  neither 
attracted,  nor  deserved  to  attract,  much  attention.  After  his 
death,  however,  his  father  collected  his  patriotic  poetry,  under 
the  title  Leyer  und  Schwerdt  (1814),  and  this  was  received 
with  enthusiasm :  to  Korner's  contemporaries,  his  songs 
were  triumphant  battle-cries;  they  came  from  the  heart  of 
a  soldier  and  appealed  to  a  people  whose  hopes  were  with 
its  soldiers.  But  looked  at  from  a  critical  standpoint,  the 
lyrics  of  Leyer  und  Schwerdt  have  few  of  the  qualities  of 
good  poetry,  and  what,  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  was 
regarded  as  a  faithful  expression  of  national  heroism,  often 
seems  to  the  modern  reader  merely  rhetoric  and  bombast. 

A  more  influential,  and,  at  the  same  time,  older  and  riper, 
poet  than  the  heroic  young  soldier  of  Leyer  und  Schwerdt  is 
Ernst  Moritz  Arndt  (1769- 1 86o).2  Arndt  may  be  regarded  as  E.  M. 
the  leading  singer  of  the  "  Befreiungskrieg  " ;  to  him  we  owe,  ^Jjf'gg 
on  the  whole,  the  best  patriotic  lyrics  of  the  period.  The 
strength  of  Arndt's  poetry  lies  in  the  skill  with  which  he 
conforms  to  the  spirit  of  the  Volkslied  and  in  the  earnest 
spiritual  tone  which  pervades  his  verse ;  his  best  songs 
stand  in  a  direct  line  of  descent  from  the  political  "Volks- 
lieder"  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  By  temperament,  Arndt 
was  a  sturdy  North  German ;  his  Christianity,  which  reminds 
us  of  Luther's,  was  sincere  and  manly.  His  writings,  prose 
as  well  as  verse,  reflect  the  essentially  religious  character  of 

*  Werke,  edited  by  A.  Stern,  3  vols.  (D.N.L.,  152,  153  [1890-99]).  Cp. 
W.  E.  Peschel  and  E.  Wildenow,  Theodor  Korner,  Leipzig,  1898. 

2  Werke,  ed.  H.  Meisner,  6  vols.,  Berlin,  1892-95  ;  a  few  of  his  lyrics  in 
M.  Mendheim's  Lyriker  und  Epiker  der  klassischen  Periode,  3  (D.N.L.,  135,  3 
[1893]),  3°3  ff- 


440  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

the  German  revolt  against  Napoleon.  To  Arndt,  as  to  his 
fellow-poets,  the  war  was  a  holy  war : — 

"  Frischauf,  ihr  teutschen  Schaaren  ! 
Frischauf  zum  heil'gen  Krieg  ! 
Gott  wird  sich  offenbaren 
Im  Tode  und  im  Sieg. 
Mil  Gott,  dem  Frommen,  Starken, 
Seyd  frolilich  und  geschwind, 
Kampft  fiir  des  Landes  Marken, 
Fur  Altern,  Weib  und  Kind." 

And  it  was  Arndt  who  wrote  the  famous  lines  : — 

"  Der  Gott,  der  Eisen  wachsen  liess, 
Der  wollte  keine  Knechte."1 

His  writings  bear  constant  witness  to  his  familiarity  with  the 
Bible ;  his  language  is  Biblical ;  his  God  is  a  Jehovah,  a  God 
of  battles ;  but,  like  Luther,  he  sees  this  Jehovah  at  the  same 
time  through  the  eyes  of  an  exclusively  German  temperament. 
The  following  verse  from  Arndt's  stirring  song  on  the  Leipziger 
Schlacht  (1813)  shows  how  much  his  patriotism  owed  to  the 
Old  Testament : — 

"  Wem  ward  der  Sieg  in  dem  harten  Streit? 
Wer  griff  den  Preis  mit  der  Eisenhand? 
Die  Walschen  hat  Gott  wie  die  Spreu  zerstreut, 
Die  Walschen  hat  Gott  verweht  wie  den  Sand  ; 
Viele  Tausende  decken  den  griinen  Rasen, 
Die  ubrig  geblieben,  entflohen  wie  Hasen, 
Napoleon  mit."2 

Arndt's  poems  appeared  in  various  collections  (Gedichte,  1803  ; 
Lieder  fiir  Teutsche,  1813;  Bannergesdnge  und  Wehrlieder, 
1813)  before,  in  1818,  they  were  collected  in  two  volumes 
as  Gedichte? 

As  a  prose  writer,  Arndt  takes  an  even  higher  position  than 

Geist  as  a  poet.     His  Geist  der  Zeit,  of  which  the  first  volume  was 

tj.Bo6-i8>       published  in   1806,  the  fourth  and  last  in   1818,   is  one  of 

the   outstanding   German    books    of    the   beginning    of    the 

century.     This  work,  with  its  hatred  of  Napoleon,  its  vigorous 

endeavour  to  awaken   the  nation's  conscience,   and,   in   the 

later  volumes,  its  conviction  that  Germany  would    one  day 

1  Gedichie,  Frankfort,  1818,  2,  64  and  95  (edition  of  1860,  212  and  228). 

a  Ibid.,  2,  218.     Cp.  edition  of  1860,  276. 

*  Gedicltte,  von  E.  M.  Arndt  (Vollstandige  Sammlung),  Berlin,  1860. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  441 

be  united,  helped  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the  new  political 
regime.  Besides  the  Get's f  der  Z?;V,  Arndt  wrote  a  large 
number  of  "  Flugschriften,"  which  stirred  up  his  countrymen 
no  less  effectively  than  his  songs.  All  his  prose — and  his 
works  include,  in  addition  to  those  mentioned,  many  volumes 
of  travel  and  reminiscence,  which  read  as  vividly  to-day  as 
when  they  were  written — is  strong  and  vigorous,  and  bears 
the  stamp,  rarer  in  German  than  in  English  literature,  of  the 
language  of  the  Bible. 

The  hope  of  seeing  Germany  united  under  a  single  ruler, 
although  to  some  extent  associated  with  the  national  revolt 
against  Napoleon,  received  little  encouragement  as  long  as 
the  nation  had  not  regained  its  freedom.  In  the  lyrics  of  M.  von 
Max  von  Schenkendorf  (1783-1817),  one  of  the  poets  of  the  ^01^783. 
"  Befreiungskrieg,"  however,  there  are  frequent  references  to  1817. 
the  hoped-for  revival  of  the  German  medieval  empire. 
Schenkendorf's  temperament  was  less  aggressive  than  that  of 
either  Korner  or  Arndt.  He  did  not  live  so  much  in  the 
moment ;  he  reflected  more,  and,  like  the  Romanticists,  to 
whom  he  has  many  points  of  resemblance,  he  was  fond  of 
dwelling  on  the  glories  of  the  middle  ages.  Schenkendorfs 
Gedichte?-  which  were  collected  in  1815,  are  rarely  as  stimu- 
lating and  vigorous  as  Arndt's  or  Korner's,  but  they  have  a 
higher  value  as  lyric  poetry.  If  Arndt  was  the  greatest  force 
in  this  era  of  national  revolt,  Schenkendorf  was  its  most  gifted 
poet. 

These  were  the  chief  singers  who  were  inspired   by  the 
War  of  Liberation  ;  but  almost  all  the  German  poets  whose 
youth  fell  in  this  age  contributed  to  the  lyric  of  revolt.     In 
1814,   Friedrich    Riickert    (1788-1866),    to   whom  we   shall 
return  in  a  later  chapter,  wrote  his  Geharnischte  Sonette  and  F.  Ruckert, 
Kriegerische  Spott-  und  Ehrenlieder,  which  awakened  almost   I788-i866. 
as  warm  a  response  as  Arndt's  songs ;  and  in  Hoffmann  von   Hoffmann 
Fallersleben's  (1798-1874)  Lieder  und  Romanzen  (1821),  there  y,°" 
is  still  an  echo  to  be  heard  of  the  struggle  for  freedom.     An  leben, 
important  sign  of  the  times  was  that  the  younger  Romanticists   i798-l874- 
shared  the  national  enthusiasm  :  Arnim  and  Brentano  both 
wrote  patriotic  songs,  while  in  journals  and  pamphlets,  Gorres, 
as  well  as  Arnim,  fought  for  German  independence. 

1  Ed.  A.  Hagen,  5th  ed.,  Stuttgart,   1878;    also  in   Reclam's  Universal- 
Bibliothek,  377-379,  Leipzig,  1871.     Cp.  M.  Mendheim,  I.e.,  3,  362  ff. 


442  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

As  far  as  actual  records  are  concerned,  Napoleon's  influence 
on  German  literature  is  thus  to  be  sought  in  a  few  volumes  of 
stirring  lyrics  and  a  tragedy  such  as  the  Hermannsschlacht, 
results  which  were  hardly  proportionate  to  the  importance 
which  the  War  of  Liberation  had  for  the  national  life.  But 
Germany's  debt  to  Napoleon — in  Austria,  as  we  shall  see  in 
a  subsequent  chapter,  the  conditions  were,  in  some  respects, 
otherwise — manifested  itself  indirectly.  Napoleon  awoke  the 
Romantic  writers  from  their  indifference  to  the  questions  and 
interests  of  their  own  time ;  he  brought  them  into  touch  with 
the  life  around  them,  gave  them  a  sense  of  patriotism,  which 
carried  the  influence  of  the  original  Romantic  ideas  far  into 
the  nineteenth  century.  There  had  always  been  a  danger  lest 
Romanticism  with  its  high,  unworldly  dreams  should  become 
completely  divorced  from  the  national  life,  and  that  its  fertil- 
ising stream  should  lose  itself  in  the  sands  of  Catholicism 
and  medievalism,  and  this  danger  was  not  wholly  averted 
by  the  Napoleonic  invasion;  but  the  best  elements  in  the 
Romantic  movement  were  won  over  for  the  national  cause. 
Until  the  rise  of  "  Young  Germany,"  Napoleon  and  the  revolt 
against  him  were  the  motive  forces  in  German  literature,  and 
they  showed  themselves  not  so  much  in  the  creation  of  a  new 
literature,  or  new  forms  of  literature,  as  in  the  deepening  and 
strengthening  of  Romanticism. 


443 


CHAPTER    III. 

GOETHE'S  LATER  YEARS. 

GOETHE'S  life  falls  naturally  into  three  main  sections :  his 
youth,  ending  with  his  arrival  in  Weimar ;  his  early  manhood 
and  middle  age,  which  extended  from  1774  to  Schiller's  death  ; 
and  a  third  and  last  division,  from  1805  to  1832.  This  final 
period  of  the  poet's  life,  which  belongs  exclusively  to  the  nine- 
teenth century,  has  now  to  be  considered.1  When  Goethe 
was  last  discussed  in  these  pages,  he  had,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, accomplished  the  classical  stage  in  his  development 
which  began  with  Iphigenie  and  Tasso  and  culminated  in 
the  Achilleis  and  Pandora.  In  1808,  the  First  Part  of  Faust 
appeared,  and  Faust  established  Goethe's  reputation  in  the 
eyes  not  only  of  Germany,  but  of  the  world,  as  the  greatest 
poet  of  his  time  and  nation.  Before  the  publication  of  this 
work,  however,  a  change  had  come  over  the  social  and  political 
condition  of  Germany ;  the  nation,  suddenly  roused  from  its 
Romantic  dreaming  by  foreign  invasion,  was  forced  to  regard 
itself  no  longer  as  a  group  of  principalities  basking  under 
an  enlightened  government  and  aiming  at  universal  peace 
and  goodwill,  but  as  the  enemy  of  a  neighbouring  state. 
Goethe,  however,  was  too  much  a  child  of  the  eighteenth 
century  to  sympathise  with  the  new  spirit  in  politics ;  as 
a  politician,  he  remained  to  the  last  a  citizen  of  Europe, 
of  the  Europe  previous  to  the  French  Revolution ;  and,  con- 
scious of  this  lack  of  harmony  between  his  own  ideas  and 
those  of  the  new  time,  he  wisely  held  aloof  from  political 
affairs.  For  Napoleon  Goethe  always  retained  a  warm  ad-  Goethe  and 
miration.  In  1806,  when  the  French  invested  Weimar,  simply  NaP°leon- 

1  Cp.  O.  Harnack,  Goethe  in  der  Epoche  seiner  Vollendung,  1805-32,  and  ed., 
Leipzig,  1901. 


444  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

because  the  Duke  had  remained  loyal  to  the  King  of  Prussia, 
his  comrade  in  arms,  he  expressed  himself,  it  is  true,  with 
great  bitterness :  this  was  the  time  when,  in  view  of  the 
general  insecurity  of  life  and  property,  he  had  his  marriage 
with  Christiane  Vulpius  legally  solemnised,  in  order  that 
neither  she  nor  his  son  should  suffer  in  the  event  of  his 
death.  But  the  danger  passed  over,  and  when,  in  the  next  few 
years,  Napoleon  swept  triumphantly  across  Europe,  the  poet 
was  deeply  impressed  by  the  "  man  of  destiny."  Goethe 
had  complete  faith  in  Napoleon,  and  although  French  rule  on 
German  soil  was  distasteful  to  him,  he  regarded  it  as  prefer- 
able to  the  alternative  he  feared,  a  Slavonic  invasion  from 
the  East;  and,  in  1808,  he  stood  face  to  face  with  Napoleon 
at  Erfurt,  when  the  latter  addressed  the  poet  in  the  oft-quoted 
words,  "  Vous  etes  un  homme  ! "  Even  when  the  first  blow 
fell  on  Napoleon,  before  Moscow,  and  fortune  at  last  deserted 
him,  Goethe  had  no  words  of  encouragement  for  the  German 
people.  "  Schtittelt  nur  an  Euren  Ketten  ! "  he  said  to  Korner 
and  Arndt  in  April,  1813,  "der  iVIann  ist  Euch  zu  gross,  Ihr 
werdet  sie  nicht  zerbrechen  !  " l  Not  until  Napoleon's  power 
was  actually  broken  had  Goethe  any  hope  of  the  success  of 
the  German  revolt;  then  he,  too,  showed  that  he  could  re- 
joice. In  his  fine  "  Festspiel,"  Des  Epimenides  Erwachen 
(1814),  there  are  lines  of  fervid  patriotism. 

Of  Goethe's  life  in  the  years  after  Schiller's  death  there  is 
little  to  say.  His  first  impulse  had  been  to  complete  his 
friend's  unfinished  tragedy  Demetrius  ;  but  he  soon  found  that 
this  plan  was  impracticable  without  remodelling  the  whole 
drama  from  the  beginning.  In  a  magnificent  Epilog  zu 
1806.  '  Schillers  Glocke  (1806),  however,  he  paid  Schiller  perhaps  the 
noblest  tribute  ever  paid  by  one  poet  to  another : — 

Denn  er  war  unser  !     Mag  das  stolze  Wort 
Den  lauten  Schmerz  gewaltig  iibertonen  ! 
Er  mochte  sich  bey  uns,  im  sichern  Port, 
Nach  vvildem  Sturm  zum  Dauernden  gewohnen. 
Indessen  schritt  sein  Geist  gewaltig  fort 
In's  Ewige  des  Wahren,  Guten,  Schdnen, 
Und  hinter  ihm,  in  wesenlosem  Scheine, 
Lag,  was  uns  alle  bandigt,  das  Gemeine.2 


1  Erinnerungcn  a  us  dem  dusseren  Leben  von  E.  M.  Arndt,  ed.  H.  Rbsch, 
Leipzig,  1892,  180. 
a  Werke,  16,  166. 


CHAP.  III.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  445 

In  1806,  Christiane  became  "  Geheimratin  von  Goethe."  In 
the  following  year,  Brentano's  sister,  Bettina,  visited  Weimar,  Bettinavon 
and  formed  a  warm  friendship  with  the  poet  which  was  kept  Arg'm^ 
up  by  letter  for  five  years.  This  is  the  correspondence  which 
Bettina  wove  into  what  might  be  described  as  an  autobio- 
graphical novel,  and  published  in  1835  as  Briefwechsel 
Goethes  mit  einem  Kinde.  To  the  same  period  belongs  also 
Goethe's  affectionate  interest  in  Minna  Herzlieb,  a  foster- 
daughter  of  K.  F.  Frommann,  a  publisher  in  Jena;  and  to 
her  he  dedicated  the  majority  of  his  Sonette.  In  1807,  the 
death  of  the  Duchess  Amalie  threw  a  shadow  over  the  Weimar 
Court,  and,  a  year  later,  Goethe  lost  his  mother. 

In  October,  1809,  Die  Wahlverwandtschaften  appeared,  the  Die  Wahl- 
first  important  work  of  the  last  epoch  of  Goethe's  life.  Just 
as  in  earlier  years  Werther  had  been  the  "  Befreiungsthat "  1809. 
by  which  the  poet  had  freed  himself  from  his  passion  for 
Charlotte  Buff,  Die  Wahlvenvandtschaften  was  now  the  poetic 
expression  of  his  love  for  and  renunciation  of  Minna  Herzlieb. 
But  Die  Wahlvenvandtschaften  stands  on  an  entirely  different 
basis  from  that  of  Werther ;  it  is  not  an  undisciplined  outpour- 
ing of  the  poet's  personal  feelings,  but  a  novel  of  careful  sym- 
metry, and  its  moral  problems  are  handled  with  a  classic 
strength  and  ruthlessness.  Die  Wahlvenvandtschaften  is  a 
psychological,  even  a  pathological  novel,  a  study  of  four 
people  in  their  mutual  relations  to  one  another.  Eduard 
and  Charlotte  have  loved  each  other  in  youth  and  been 
separated  by  circumstances ;  each  has  married,  but,  now 
as  widow  and  widower,  they  find  each  other  again.  Their 
marriage  is  not  an  unhappy  one,  although  based  on  friend- 
ship rather  than  on  love.  Two  new  figures  are  introduced, 
a  Hauptmann  or  Captain  and  Ottilie,  Charlotte's  foster- 
daughter.  Goethe  considers  these  four  people  as  so  many 
chemical  elements  with  inherent,  elective  affinities  ;  the  Haupt- 
mann and  Charlotte  are  attracted  to  each  other  in  spite 
of  themselves,  so  also  are  Ottilie  and  Eduard.  Charlotte's 
lover  has  the  strength  to  renounce  ;  Eduard  demands  a  separa- 
tion from  his  wife.  But  in  the  hopes  that  her  child  will 
bridge  the  gulf  between  her  husband  and  herself,  Charlotte 
opposes  the  separation.  Eduard,  becoming  every  day  more 
deeply  involved  in  his  passion,  goes  abroad  in  order  to  forget 
Ottilie ;  he  distinguishes  himself  by  his  bravery  in  battle,  but 


446  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

without  avail.  Charlotte's  child  is  born  and  bears  testimony 
to  the  elective  affinities  of  the  parents,  for  it  resembles  both 
Ottilie  and  the  Hauptmann.  It  is  subsequently  drowned 
through  Ottilie's  carelessness,  and  by  this  accident  the  girl's 
soul  is  suddenly  awakened  to  moral  consciousness.  She 
realises  that  she  can  never  become  Eduard's  wife,  even  should 
he  be  free  to  marry  her.  Her  strength  is  not  able  to  stand 
the  shock ;  she  takes  ill  and  dies.  And  it  is  not  long  before 
the  broken-hearted  Eduard  dies  also. 

"Es  ist  kein  Strich  in  den  Wahlverwandtschaften"  said 
Goethe  to  Eckermann,  "den  ich  nicht  selbst  erlebt  habe  ; 
aber  kein  Strich  so,  wie  er  erlebt  worden."1  And,  indeed, 
judged  as  an  artistic  treatment  of  subjective  experiences,  this 
novel  might  be  called  Goethe's  masterpiece :  it  has  none  of 
the  unrefined  realism  which  characterises  the  "confessions" 
of  the  Werther  period ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  has  the 
subject,  like  those  of  Goethe's  classical  dramas,  compelled  the 
poet  to  appear  more  objective  than  he  actually  was.  Irre- 
spective of  its  subjectivity,  Die  Wahlverwandtschaften  is  one 
of  Goethe's  most  artistically  satisfying  works :  no  book  of 
his  has  been  more  deeply  influenced  by  those  earnest  con- 
ferences with  Schiller  on  a  classic  literary  art,  which  occu- 
pied both  poets  so  exclusively  in  the  later  years  of  their 
friendship.  Strictly  speaking,  however,  this  remarkable  work 
is  not  a  "  Roman "  or  novel,  but  a  "  Novelle "  or  short 
story.  Goethe  originally  intended  it  to  be  one  of  the  stories 
which  make  up  the  volume  of  Wilhelm  Meisters  Wander- 
jahre,  but  it  soon  grew  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  original 
plan.  To  a  modern  reader,  the  most  serious  flaws  in  the 
Wahlvenvandtschaften  are  Ottilie's  diary,  which  the  poet  has 
filled  with  his  own  wisdom,  not  his  heroine's,  and  the  odour  of 
sanctity  with  which  he  surrounds  her  deathbed.  But  the  diary 
was  part  of  the  heritage  which  the  novelists  of  the  eighteenth 
century  left  to  their  successors,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  tend- 
ency shows,  at  least,  that  Goethe  was  sufficiently  in  touch  with 
his  younger  contemporaries  to  understand  and  sympathise 
with  the  religious  strain  in  the  Romantic  movement.  Die 
Wahlvenvandtschaffen  is  a  masterpiece  of  construction  and 
proportion  :  although  Goethe  had  reached  his  sixtieth  year, 

1  J.    P.    Eckermann,   Gesprciche  mil   Goethe  (Feb.    17,   1830),   2,  188.     Cp. 
2,  60. 


CHAP.  III.]          THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  447 

the  power  of  his  genius  was  still  unimpaired.  And  not 
only  the  Wahlverwandtschaften,  but  lively  drinking  songs  like 
Vanitas !  •vanitatum  vanitas !  ("  Ich  hab  mein  Sach  auf 
merits  gestellt "),  ballads  like  Johanna  Sebus,  Der  Todtentanz, 
Der  getreue  Eekart,  even  poems  based  on  old  Italian  novelle, 
and  full  of  the  sunny,  heathen  naturalness  of  Ariosto, — all 
these  prove  that  if  the  years  had  brought  Goethe  to  maturity, 
they  had  not  yet  made  him  old. 

Other  more  ambitious  works  were  in  preparation.  To  1810 
belongs  the  Farbenlehre,  which  is  practically  a  continuation  of  Zur  Far- 
the  earlier  Beytrdge  zur  Optik.  This  attempt  of  Goethe's  to 
overthrow  the  authority  of  Newton  is  usually  looked  upon  as 
one  of  the  few  controversies  in  which  the  poet  suffered  defeat. 
To  Newton's  view  of  light  and  colour  as  wave-phenomena 
governed  by  mathematical  laws,  Goethe,  who  found  one 
faithful  supporter  in  the  philosopher,  Arthur  Schopenhauer, 
opposed  a  "  natural "  theory,  according  to  which  colours  are 
the  result  of  varying  mixtures  of  light  and  darkness.  But 
to  refute  Newton  properly,  it  would  have  been  necessary  to 
meet  him  on  his  own  ground,  and  this  Goethe  was  too  ill- 
equipped  with  mathematical  knowledge  to  attempt.  At  the 
same  time,  Zur  Farbenlehre  has  value,  even  if  only  as  a 
negative  contribution  to  science :  the  treatise  is  an  admir- 
able example  of  scientific  observation,  of  clear  and  careful 
description,  of  patient  inquiry  and  experiment, — a  book  that 
even  still  has  the  power  to  help  and  stimulate  the  student  of 
physical  science. 

In  the  following  year,  1811,  Goethe  gave  to  the  public  the 
first  volume  of  his  autobiography  under  the  title  Aus  meinem 
Leben :  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit ;  the  second  volume  was  pub- 
lished  in  1812,  the  third  in  1814  ;  the  fourth,  which  continues 
the  history  of  the  poet's  life  as  far  as  his  arrival  in  Weimar,  33. 
appeared  posthumously  in  1833.  As  fragments  of  what  was 
to  have  been  a  continuation  of  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,  Goethe 
published,  in  1816-17,  his  Italidnische  Reise^ ;  in  1822,  Die 
Campagnein  Frankreich,  followed  by  Die  Belagerung  von  Afaynz 
in  1829  ;  to  this  year  belongs  also  the  Zweyte  romische  Auf  en- 
thai  t,  and  to  1830,  the  Tag-  und  Jahres-Hefte.  In  Dichtung 
und  Wahrheit,  Goethe  begins,  it  has  been  said,  to  grow  old ; 
he  himself  recognised  the  love  of  retrospect  as  a  sign  of  ap- 

1  Edited  by  C.  Schuchardt,  2  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1862. 


448 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Goethe's 
later  years. 


Scientific 
interests. 


preaching  age.  But  the  descriptions  in  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit 
of  the  poet's  early  life  in  Frankfort  and  of  the  "  Sturm  und 
Drang  "  are  so  vivid  that  the  reader  forgets  they  were  written 
by  a  man  of  sixty.  "Es  sind  lauter  Resultate  meines  Lebens," 
said  Goethe  once  of  this  work,  "  und  die  erzahlten  einzelnen 
Facta  dienen  bloss,  um  eine  allgemeine  Beobachtung,  eine 
hohere  Wahrheit  zu  bestatigen."1  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  is 
an  autobiography  composed  by  an  artist  and  interpreted  by  a 
philosopher;  the  facts  of  the  narrative  are  the  "Wahrheit," 
the  subordination  of  the  facts  and  events  to  an  artistic  plan 
according  to  which  they  are  grouped  and  arranged,  and  to  a 
philosophy  which  regards  human  life  and  effort  with  an 
almost  fatalistic  calm,  as  something  foreordained — that  is  the 
"  Dichtung."  Far  removed,  as  Goethe  was,  from  the  scenes 
which  he  described,  he  has  not  succeeded  in  conveying  the 
"  intensity  "  of  his  youth,  but  his  genius  gave  him  the  power 
of  suggesting  objectively  how  intense  his  feelings  had  been. 
It  only  adds  to  the  worth  of  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  that  it 
should  be  tranquilly  reflective  instead  of  youthful  and  turbulent, 
and  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  love  episodes,  especially  that  of 
which  Friederike  Brion  is  the  heroine,  is  alone  sufficient  to 
place  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit  at  the  head  of  Goethe's  achieve- 
ments in  sustained  prose. 

Three  masterpieces  of  the  poet's  last  years  still  remain 
to  be  considered,  West  -  ostlicher  Divan  (1819),  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Wanderjahre  (1821),  and  the  Second  Part  of  Faust 
(1833).  But  these  works  represent  only  a  part  of  his 
many-sided  activity  at  this  time ;  he  also  edited  a  periodical 
publication,  Uber  Kunst  und  Alterthum  (1816-32),  which 
with  Zur  Natunvissenschaft  iiberhaupt  (1817-24),  and  Zur 
Morphologic  (1817-24),  formed  the  repository  for  his  most 
pregnant  ideas.  Above  all,  Goethe's  interest  in  natural  science 
seemed  to  increase  as  time  went  on,  although  it  was  tempered 
by  a  regret  that  he  was  unable  to  keep  pace  with  its  rapid 
advances. 

"Wenn  ich  das  neuste  Vorschreiten  der  Natunvissenschaften 
betrachte,"  he  wrote  in  1826,  "so  komme  ich  mir  vor  wie  ein 
Wandrer,  der  in  der  Morgendammerung  gegen  Osten  ging, 
das  heranwachsende  Licht  mit  Freuden  anschaute  und  die 


1  J.  P.  Eckermann,  I.e.  (March  30,  1831),  2,  334. 


CHAP,  ill.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  449 

Erscheinung  des  grossen  Feuerballs  mit  Sehnsucht  erwartete, 
aher  doch  bey  dem  Hervortreten  desselben  die  Augen  weg- 
vvenden  musste,  welche  den  gewiinschten  gehofften  Glanz  nicht 
ertragen  konnten."  l 

Although,  as  far  as  his  theory  of  colour  and  his  "  Neptunian  " 
views  on  the  origin  of  the  earth's  crust  were  concerned,  he 
was  left  behind  by  the  younger  geologists,  he  was  able  to 
observe  the  effects  of  his  theory  of  metamorphosis  and  de- 
velopment on  the  study  of  the  organic  sciences ;  and,  more 
than  twenty  years  after  Goethe's  death,  Charles  Darwin  at 
last  revealed  the  possibilities  that  lay  hidden  in  the  poet's 
theories — possibilities  of  which  Goethe  himself  knew  nothing. 
From  his  sixtieth  year  onwards,  Weimar  became  a  kind  of 
literary  Mecca,  to  which  pilgrims  from  all  lands  came  to 
pay  homage  to  the  greatest  European  man  of  letters  ;  and 
he  corresponded  with  the  representative  poets  and  scientists, 
not  only  of  his  own  land  but  of  France,  Italy,  and  England. 
His  Tagebiicher^  his  correspondence,  such  as  that  with  K.  Diaries, 
F.  Zelter  (6  vols.,  1833-34),  his  conversations,  above  all,  s°0rned~ence- 
those  recorded  in  the  Gesprache  mit  Goethe  (1837)  by  J.  P.  andcon- 
Eckermann  (1792-1854)  and  in  the  Unterhaltungen  mit  dem  versations. 
Kanzler  Miiller  (1870;  2nd  ed.,  1898),  afford  an  extra- 
ordinarily complete  picture  of  Goethe's  old  age.2  To  the 
last,  he  maintained  an  unflagging  interest  in  all  that  happened 
in  the  world  of  literature,  art,  and  science ;  he  had  words  of 
kindly  encouragement  for  the  younger  generation,  and  bestowed 
an  attention  upon  leading  foreign  writers,  on  Byron,  Carlyle, 
Beranger,  Manzoni,  which  not  unreasonably  awakened  jealousy 
in  Germany.  These  manifold  interests  will  be  found  recorded 
in  the  pages  of  Uber  Kunst  und  Alterthum  ;  and  here,  too, 
are  those  thoughts  on  a  "  Weltlitteratur ''  which  give  the  key 
to  his  magnificent  cosmopolitism.  The  one-sidedness  of  his 
views  on  art  as  expressed  in  the  Propylaen,  is  not  insisted 
upon  in  Uber  Kunst  und  Altert/wm,  and  he  brought  a  warmer 
sympathy  to  bear  on  the  artistic  ideals  of  the  Romanticists 
than  it  is  usual  to  credit  him  with  —  the  completion  of 
Cologne  Cathedral,  and  the  art  of  Cornelius  and  Overbeck 

1  Letter  to  K.  G.  Carus  and  E.  J.  d' Alton  (Jan.  23,  1826).     Cp.  K.  G.  Carus, 
Goethe :  zu  dessen  niiherem  Verstandniss,  Leipzig,  1843,  33  f. 

2  Goethe's  Tagebucher  form  the  third  division  of  the  Weimar  edition,  1887 
ff.      The  Gesprache  have  been  collected  by  W.   von   Biedermann,   10  vols., 
Leipzig,  1889-96. 

2  F 


450 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


West- 
Sstlicher 
Divan, 
1819. 


Marianne 
von  Wille- 
mer. 


appealed  to  him  strongly.  When  he  made  the  oft-quoted 
remark  to  Eckermann,  "Das  Romantische  nenne  ich  das 
Kranke,  das  Klassische  das  Gesunde,"1  he  did  not  mean 
that  he  was  unable  to  appreciate  what  was  really  vital  in 
the  Romantic  movement  of  the  new  century. 

For  the  idea  of  the  West-ostliche  Divan,  Goethe  was  in- 
debted to  the  Viennese  orientalist,  Joseph  von  Hammer 
Purgstall  (1774-1856),  whose  voluminous  writings  on  oriental 
literature  and  history  opened  up  a  new  field  to  German  poetry. 
In  1813-14,  Hammer-Purgstall  published  a  translation  of  the 
Divan  of  the  Persian  poet  Hafiz,  which  attracted  Goethe's 
attention.  Meanwhile,  the  lyric  chords  in  the  poet's  nature 
had  been  set  vibrating  by  a  new  passion ;  his  romantic,  or, 
as  it  has  well  been  called,  "  Renaissance "  love  for  Marianne 
von  Willemer,  whom  he  met  in  the  summer  of  1814  and  again 
in  1815,  demanded  lyric  expression  as  fiercely  as  the  passions 
of  his  younger  days,  and  he  poured  the  love-songs  she  inspired 
into  the  moulds  of  the  Persian  poet.  Der  West-ostliche  Divan 
is  more  western  than  eastern  ;  it  is,  as  Goethe  described  it  in 
the  sub-title  of  his  MS.,  a  "  Versammlung  deutscher  Gedichte 
mit  stetem  Bezug  auf  den  Divan  des  persischen  Sangers  Ma- 
homed Schemfeddin  Hafis."  The  collection  is  divided  into 
twelve  books  of  unequal  length  and  unequal  poetic  worth,  the 
best  being  the  "  Buch  Suleika "  and  the  "  Schenkenbuch." 
An  entire  book  was  to  have  been  devoted  to  Napoleon  under 
the  oriental  guise  of  "  Timur,"  but  the  "  Buch  des  Timur,"  as 
it  stands,  contains  only  a  couple  of  poems.  The  Suleika  of 
the  Divan  is,  of  course,  Marianne  von  Willemer,  who  herself 
contributed  one  or  two  beautiful  songs — notably  that  begin- 
ning, "  Ach  um  deine  feuchten  Schwingen  " — to  the  collec- 
tion. The  poet  himself  is  Hatem  : — ' 

"  Nur  diess  Herz,  es  ist  von  Dauer, 
Schwillt  in  jugendlichstem  Flor ; 
Unter  Schnee  und  Nebelschauer 
Ras't  ein  Xtna  dir  hervor. 

Du  beschamst  wie  Morgenrothe 
Jener  Gipfel  ernste  Wand, 
Und  noch  einmal  filhlet  Hatem 
Friihlingshauch  und  Sommerbrand."  2 


1  J.  P.  Eckermann,  I.e.  (April  2.  1829),  2,  92. 
*  Werke,  6,  168. 


CHAP.  III.]          THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  451 

The  lyrics  of  the  West-ostliche  Divan  have  the  convincing 
sincerity  of  Goethe's  early  love-poetry,  and  are  calmer  and 
more  reflective  than  those  inspired  by  Lili  or  Frau  von 
Stein ;  less  spontaneous,  they  are  all  the  richer  in  penetrat- 
ing ideas,  in  phrases  which  contain  the  very  essence  of 
Goethe's  thought  —  two  of  the  books  are  characteristically 
entitled  "  Buch  der  Spriiche  "  and  "  Buch  der  Betrachtungen." 
It  is  to  the  Zahme  Xenien  and  the  Spriiche  in  Prosa  that  we 
must  turn,  however,  to  obtain  a  true  idea  of  the  wealth  of 
apothegmatic  wisdom  which  Goethe  poured  forth  in  the  last 
fifteen  or  twenty  years  of  his  life.  As  a  creator  of  "  winged 
words,"  he  is  unsurpassed  in  the  literature  of  the  world. 

Wilhelm  Meisters  Wanderjahre^  oder  die  Entsagenden,  of  Wilhelm 
which  the  first  part  appeared  in  1821,  the  completed  work  *$£%£,.. 
in  the  "Ausgabe  letzter  Hand"  in  1829,  allows  of  no  com-  jaAre,i82i 
parison,  as  a  piece  of  fiction,  with  the  Lehrjahre :  in  the  29- 
Wanderjahre  the  personal  fate  of  the  hero  ceases  to  be  inter- 
esting, and  the  whole  gives  the  impression  of  being  a  collec- 
tion of  brief,  irrelevant  stories,  strung  together  on  a  loose 
thread.  Even  those  characters  which  are  taken  over  from 
the  Lehrjahre  are  here  only  shadows  of  what  they  were  in 
the  earlier  book,  mere  impersonations  of  ideas.  The  pos- 
sibility of  his  once  writing  a  sequel  to  Wilhelm  Meisters 
Lehrjahre  was  perhaps  present  to  Goethe's  mind  when  he 
gave  the  novel  its  title;  in  any  case,  since  1796,  when  the 
matter  was  discussed  with  Schiller,  he  had  the  intention  to 
follow  out  Meister's  history  after  his  apprenticeship  to  life 
was  accomplished.  He  wished,  in  particular,  to  mark  out 
the  province  of  the  individual  in  his  relations  to  society,  to 
discuss  the  duties  of  man  as  a  member  of  the  social  organ- 
ism,— above  all,  to  show  how  far  a  person  must  subordinate 
and  efface  himself  in  the  interests  of  the  race.  Wilhelm 
Meisters  Wanderjahre  consequently  contains  a  more  complete 
summary  of  Goethe's  ideas  on  social  ethics  than  any  other  of 
his  works.  But  the  comparatively  simple  problem  which  the 
novelist  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  to  face,  assumed  a 
much  more  complicated  form  when  approached  by  a  novelist 
of  the  nineteenth.  With  the  rise  of  industrialism  and  the 
progress  of  machinery,  social  problems  forced  the  philosoph- 
ical discussion  of  individual  morality  into  the  background ; 
and  Goethe  saw  that  his  original  plan  would  not  hold  all  the 


452 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


new  ideas  which  crowded  upon  him — ideas  which  not  only 
tempted  discussion  in  the  novel,  but  could  not  be  denied 
admittance  to  it.  Thus  although  the  Wanderjahre  is  full  of 
thoughts  which  have  influenced  the  whole  subsequent  de- 
velopment of  ethics,  it  is  the  most  hopelessly  fragmentary  of 
all  Goethe's  books.  Some  of  the  component  stories,  how- 
ever, such  as  Die  Flucht  nach  Agypten,  with  which  the  novel 
opens,  and  Der  Mann  von  funfzig  Jahren,  are  told  freshly 
and  vividly,  but  almost  all  of  them  belong  to  a  much  earlier 
period  than  does  the  rest  of  the  book. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  last  years  of  the  poet  who  stood 
at  the  head  of  European  literature  should  have  been  rich  in 
interesting  experiences  ;  so  full,  indeed,  is  the  record,  that 
there  is  hardly  a  week  in  Goethe's  later  life  which  cannot 
be  accounted  for.  Here,  however,  we  can  only  concern 
ourselves  with  the  principal  incidents.  In  1813,  Wieland 
died;  in  1816,  Goethe  lost  his  wife;  in  1817,  he  resigned 
his  directorship  of  the  theatre,  the  duties  of  which  had  been 
growing  year  by  year  more  irksome  to  him.  In  1822,  he 
was  once  more  at  the  mercy  of  an  irresistible  passion,  his  last 
Ulrike  von  love  being  Ulrike  von  Levetzow,  a  girl  of  nineteen,  whom  he 
met  aj  Marienbad  in  the  summer  of  this  year.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  years,  his  feelings  for  Ulrike  were  deep  enough  to 
wring  from  him  the  beautiful  Marienbader  Elegie  and  the 
Trilogie  der  Leiderischaft.  Meanwhile,  death  was  rapidly 
thinning  the  ranks  of  his  old  friends  and  fellow-workers  :  in 
1827,  Charlotte  von  Stein  died;  in  the  following  year  Duke 
Karl  August,  and  on  the  22nd  of  March,  1832,  Goethe 
himself  *vas  dead.  Not  in  German-speaking  lands  alone, 
but  throughout  Europe,  it  was  felt  that  the  poet's  death 
marked  the  close  of  an  era — that  the  grandest  intellectual 
force  known  in  literature  for  centuries  had  passed  away. 

In  the  beginning  of  1832,  Goethe  put  the  finishing  touches 
to  Faust,  the  poem  which,  more  than  any  other,  was  the  work 
of  his  life.  The  second  part  of  Faust,  although  poetically 
complete  in  itself  and  more  of  an  artistic  whole  than  the 
Wanderjakre,  is  hardly  less  weighted  with  a  burden  of 
allegory,  science,  and  philosophy;  much,  as  Goethe  himself 
said,  was  "  hineingeheimnisst "  into  the  poem.1  But  at  the 
same  time,  were  it  possible  to  remove  all  such  elements  from 

1  Letter  to  Zelter,  July  27,  1829  (Briefwechsel,  5,  77). 


Levetzow. 


Faust, 

Zweyttr 

Theil, 


CHAP.  HI.]          THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  453 

the  Second  Part  of  Faust,  there  would  still  be  left  a  dramatic 
poem  of  imposing  beauty.  In  the  First  Part,  Goethe  had  led 
his  hero  through  the  little  world  of  personal  feelings  and  aspir- 
ations ;  in  the  Second,  he  introduces  him  to  the  great  macro- 
cosm of  human  society,  places  him  face  to  face  with  questions 
of  social  welfare,  of  government,  finance,  and  war.  Nor  is  this 
all :  following  an  incident  in  the  saga  which  had  been  utilised 
by  Marlowe,  he  brings  Faust  into  personal  relations  with  the 
past,  with  Greek  antiquity.  Thus,  although  in  its  Second  Part 
Faust  is  a  "world  drama  "on  a  gigantic  scale,  it  remains — 
as  it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that  it  would — a  fragment, 
the  fragment  of  an  incommensurable  whole.  For  the  theme 
of  Faust,  as  Goethe  conceives  it,  and  as  it  lies  hidden  in  the 
old  fable,  is  little  less  than  humanity  itself. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Second  Part,  Faust  awakens  to  a 
new  world  and  a  new  life.  He  comes  with  Mephistopheles  to 
the  Court  of  the  Kaiser.  Owing  to  the  ruler's  indifference 
towards  his  duties,  the  land  is  on  the  brink  of  ruin,  but 
Mephistopheles  prevents  bankruptcy  by  the  introduction  of 
paper  money,  and  a  great  "  Mummenschanz "  takes  place  at 
the  Court.  For  the  amusement  of  the  Kaiser,  Faust  under- 
takes to  conjure  up  Helena  and  Paris,  but  before  he  is  able 
to  do  this,  he  is  obliged  to  visit  the  mysterious  "mothers," 
beings  who  would  seem  to  personify  the  creative  intelligence 
to  which  we  owe  what  Plato  called  the  ideals  of  things.  Re- 
turning endowed  with  the  power  of  recalling  the  shadows  of 
the  past,  Faust  fulfils  his  promise,  only  himself  to  fall  in  love 
with  Helen  of  Troy.  He  attempts  to  grasp  her,  but  the 
phantom  disappears,  and  he  is  thrown  stunned  to  the  ground. 
In  the  second  act,  Faust  is  once  more  discovered  in  the 
familiar  study  of  the  First  Part,  intent  on  creating  in  a  glass 
retort  a  homunculus.  With  the  help  of  this  small  being, 
which  represents  his  will, — the  factor  by  which  the  concep- 
tions of  his  imagination  are  realised, — Faust  obtains  what 
the  "  mothers  "  could  only  gwe  him  in  shadowy,  unsubstantial 
form,  and  the  homunculus  leads  him  back  through  the  cen- 
turies to  the  scene  of  the  "  Classische  Walpurgisnacht."  Al- 
though one  of  the  most  poetically  conceived  scenes  in  the 
entire  drama,  the  poetry  of  this  second  Walpurgisnacht  is 
marred  by  an  excess  of  obscure  symbolism  :  beneath  the 
picturesque  beauty  of  the  scenes  in  the  "  Pharsalian  Fields," 


454  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

on  the  banks  of  the  Peneios,  and  the  shore  of  the  .'Egean  Sea, 
is  concealed  a  scientific  allegory  of  the  origin  of  the  universe. 

Act  III.,  which  was  published  separately,  in  1827,  as 
Helena :  Klassisch-romantisclie  Phantasmagoric,  is  the  oldest 
and  best-sustained  part  of  the  Second  Faust ;  the  harmony  of 
the  scene  is  not  disturbed  to  the  same  extent  as  in  other  parts 
of  the  poem,  by  the  intrusion  of  an  irrelevant  allegory.  The 
subject  of  Helena  is  Faust's  marriage  with  Helen  of  Troy,  who 
has  taken  refuge  with  him  from  the  wrath  of  Menelaus.  In 
bringing  Helena  from  her  Grecian  home  to  Faust's  medieval 
"  Burg,"  Goethe  has  not  only  placed  in  striking  contrast  the 
two  ruling  ideas  of  his  time  expressed  by  the  catchwords 
"  classic "  and  "  romantic,"  but  has  also  given  picturesque 
expression  to  what  had  been  the  chief  striving  of  his  own 
intellectual  life,  the  reconciliation  of  Greek  ideals  with  those 
of  Northern  art  and  poetry.  From  the  union  of  Faust  and 
Helen  springs  Euphorion,  a  being  in  whom  Goethe  has 
symbolised  Byron.  Higher  and  higher  Euphorion  soars 
until,  in  an  overbold  flight,  he  falls,  another  Icarus,  lifeless 
at  his  parents'  feet.  Helena  herself  vanishes,  leaving  only 
her  robe  and  veil  behind  her,  while  Faust,  as  if  awakened 
from  a  dream,  is  led  "back  by  Mephistopheles  into  practical 
life.  The  fourth  qct  of  the  Second  Part  is  the  weakest  of 
the  five :  here  Goethe  obviously  intended  to  dwell  on  the 
ideal  side  of  politics,  as  in  the  first  act  he  had  described 
its  rottenness.  Faust  aids  his  Kaiser  to  vanquish  an  opponent 
in  battle,  and  then  devotes  himself  to  the  development  of  in- 
dustry and  commerce ;  he  plans  colonies,  lays  out  canals,  and 
even  wins  from  the  sea  a  wide  expanse  of  new  land. 

At  the  opening  of  the  fifth  act,  Faust's  life-work  is  finished ; 
from  the  battlements  of  his  palace  he  looks  down  upon  the 
results  of  his  labours.  Although  he  has  reached  his  hundredth 
year,  he  is  still  unsatisfied ;  the  moment  has  not  arrived  to 
which  he  can  say — 

"  Verweile  doch  !     Du  bist  so  schon  !  " 

It  troubles  him,  for  instance,  that  all  he  looks  on  does  not 
belong  to  him,  and  to  attain  his  end,  he  causes  the  cottage  of 
two  old  peasants  to  be  burnt  to  the  ground.  But  his  life  lies 
in  the  hands  of  a  higher  power.  Four  grey  figures,  Want, 
Guilt,  Care,  Need,  approach,  but  only  Care  is  able  to  pene- 


CHAP,  ill.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURV.  455 

trate  into  Faust's  palace,  and  in  the  distance  appears  her 
stronger  brother  Death.  "  Hast  du,"  she  asks,  "  die  Sorge  nie 
gekannt?"  To  which  Faust  replies  in  words  that  express 
Goethe's  own  creed  : — 

"  Ich  bin  nur  durch  die  Welt  gerannt ; 
Ein  jed'  Geltist  ergriff  ich  bei  den  Haaren, 
Was  nicht  genligte  Hess  ich  fahren, 
Was  mir  entwischte  liess  ich  ziehn. 
Ich  habe  nur  begehrt  und  nur  vollbracht, 
Und  abermals  gewiinscht  und  so  mit  Macht 
Mein  Leben  durchgesturmt ;  erst  gross  und  machtig ; 
Nun  aber  geht  es  weise,  geht  bedachtig. 
Der  Erdenkreis  ist  mir  genug  bekannt, 
Nach  drtiben  ist  die  Aussicht  uns  verrannt ; 
Tlior  !  wer  dorthin  die  Augen  blinzelnd  richtet, 
Sich  iiber  Wolken  seines  gleichen  dichtet ! 
Er  stehe  fest  und  sehe  hier  sich  um  ; 
Dem  Tiichtigen  ist  diese  Welt  nicht  stumm  ; 
Was  braucht  er  in  die  Ewigkeit  zu  schweifen  ! 
Was  er  erkennt  lasst  sich  ergreifen  ; 
Er  wandle  so  den  Erdentag  entlang ; 
Wenn  Geister  spuken  geh'  er  seinen  Gang, 
Im  Weiterschreiten  find'  er  Qual  und  Gliick, 
Er  !  unbefriedigt  jeden  Augenblick."1 

Care  breathes  on  Faust's  eyes  and  blinds  him.  At  Mephis- 
topheles'  bidding,  lemures  dig  his  grave,  and  on  the  brink  of 
this  grave  Faust  grasps  at  last  the  great  truth,  the  end  of  all 
practical  wisdom : — 

' '  Ja  !  diesem  Sinne  bin  ich  ganz  ergeben, 
Das  ist  der  Weisheit  letzter  Schluss : 
Nur  der  verdient  sich  Freiheit  wie  das  Leben, 
Der  taglich  sie  erobern  muss. 
Und  so  verbringt,  umrungen  von  Gefahr, 
Hier  Kindheit,  Mann  und  Greis  sein  tiichtig  Jalu. 
Solch  ein  Gewimmel  mocht'  ich  sehn, 
Auf  freiem  Grand  mit  freiem  Volke  stehn. 
Zum  Augenblicke  diirft'  ich  sagen  : 
Verweile  doch,  du  bist  so  schon  ! 
Es  kanndie  Spur  von  meinen  Erdetagen 
Nicht  in  Aonen  untergehn. — 
Im  Vorgeflihl  von  solchem  hohen  Gliick 
Geniess'  ich  jetzt  den  hochsten  Augenblick."2 

Thus  Faust  sinks  into  the  grave  in  the  "  Vorgefiihl "  of  perfect 
satisfaction,  but  Mephistopheles,  believing  that  with  Care's  aid 
he  has  won  his  wager 3  and  that  the  hour  of  his  triumph  has 

i  Act  5,  11.  11,433  ff-  ( Werke,  15,  309).  2  MM    \\,  II>573  ff.  (p.  3IS  f.) 

8  Cp.,  however,  H.  Tiirck,  Eine  neue  Famt-Erkldrung,  and  ed.,  Berlin, 
1901,  55  ff. 


456  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  v. 

come,  summons  his  demons  to  carry  Faust  off.  The  angels  of 
the  heavenly  host  descend  to  do  battle  for  Faust's  soul,  and 
Mephistopheles  shrinks  before  the  roses  that  they  strew. 
Higher  and  higher  they  rise,  bearing  the  immortal  part  of 
Faust,  and  singing  as  they  go : — 

"  Gerettet  ist  das  edle  Glied 
Der  Geisterwelt  vom  Bosen  : 
Wer  imtner  strebend  sich  bemiihl 
Den  ktinnen  wir  erlosen."1 

They  ascend  through  the  whole  hierarchy  of  medieval  Chris- 
tianity, to  the  feet  of  the  Mater  Gloriosa  herself.  Here,  "  Una 
poenitentium,  sonst  Gretchen  genannt,"  intercedes  before 
the  Virgin  for  the  "friih  Geliebten,  nicht  mehr  Getriibten," 
and  the  drama  closes  with  the  hymn  of  the  "  Chorus 
mysticus  "  :  — 

"  Alles  Vergangliche 

Ist  nur  ein  Gleichniss  ; 

Das  Unzulangliche 

Hier  wird's  Ereigniss ; 

Das  Unbeschreibliche 

Hier  ist's  gethan ; 

Das  Ewig-Weibliche 

Zieht  uns  hinan. "  2 

So  culminates  Goethe's  representative  work,  a  work  which, 
in  conception,  at  least,  extends  over  sixty  years  of  the  poet's 
life.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Goethe  who  gave 
the  nineteenth  century  its  greatest  poem,  whose  later  years 
belonged  to  the  age  of  exact  science,  invention,  and  indus- 
trialism, began  his  intellectual  career  in  the  narrow,  provincial 
atmosphere  of  Gottsched's  Leipzig.  Never  was  there  a  life  so 
rich  as  his.  Not  only  did  he  lead  German  literature  through 
the  stormy  days  of  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  to  the  calm  age  of 
classical  perfection ;  not  only  does  he  form  the  end  and  goal 
of  the  movement  of  eighteenth -century  thought,  which  had 
begun  in  England,  and  become  Europeanised  in  France;  but 
he  was  able  to  understand,  as  no  other  man  of  his  generation, 
the  new  time.  He  was  the  spiritual  leader  of  the  Romantic 
movement,  and  he  encouraged  all  that  was  modern  and  healthy 
in  the  literatures  of  Europe,  which  sprang  up  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Romanticism.  He  looked  on  life,  it  is  true,  with  the 

i  Act  5,  11.  11,934  ff-  (P-  33°)- 
-  Ibid.,  11.  12,104  ff-  (P-  33?)- 


CHAP.  III.J          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  457 

eyes  of  eighteenth-century  humanitarianism,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  he  showed  an  understanding  for  modern  conflicts,  for 
modern  ethics,  for  modern  ideals  in  art  and  literature,  which 
made  him,  in  the  fullest  sense,  a  poet  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. That  Goethe  was  the  most  universally  gifted  of  men 
of  letters  has  long  been  recognised ;  but  it  is  sometimes 
forgotten  that  he  was  also  the  representative  poet  of  two 
centuries,  of  two  widely  different  epochs  of  history. 


458 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    HEIDELBERG    ROMANTICISTS. 

IN  following  Goethe's  life  to  its  close,  we  have  been  carried 
far  beyond  the  point  arrived  at  in  the  second  chapter  of  the 
present  part.  It  is  now  necessary  to  return  once  more  to  the 
beginning  of  the  century  and  to  trace  the  development  of  the 
movement  which  was  inaugurated  by  the  Romantic  School. 
We  have  already  seen  how  the  ideas  scattered  abroad  by  the 
early  Romanticists  brought  about  a  change  in  the  aspect  of 
German  literature,  and  how  these  ideas  found  support,  rather 
than  opposition,  in  the  jubilant  individualism  of  the  rising 
against  Napoleon.  But  between  the  publication  of  the 
Athenaum  and  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  there  were  many  stages  of 
literary  evolution,  and  with  the  second  of  these  is  associated 
The  the  so-called  Heidelberg  School.  The  chief  members  of  this 

School***8  8rouP  were  Clemens  Maria  Brentano  (1778-1842),  Ludwig 
Achim  von  Arnim  (1781-1831),  and  Joseph  von  G6rres(i776- 
1848).  In  the  hands  of  these  writers,  the  vague,  poetic 
idealism  of  the  older  school  received  form  and  clear  outlines  : 
instead  of  losing  itself  in  purple  shadows  and  yearning  for 
impossible  "blue  flowers,"  Romanticism  now  sought  the 
themes  for  its  poetry  in  the  nation's  actual  past,  and  ex- 
pressed its  lyrical  ideas  in  the  rhythm  of  the  Volkslied.  In 
other  words,  in  Heidelberg,  Romantic  individualism  became 
national. 

C.  M.  Brentano's  biography1  resembles  in  many  respects  a  Roman- 

^S3J£.    tic  novel.     His  father  was  of  Italian  birth,  but  had  settled  in 

Frankfort,  where  he  married  a  daughter  of  Sophie  von  Laroche. 

1  Gesammelte  Schriften,  edited  by  C.  Brentano,  9  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1852-55  ; 
selections  edited  by  M.  Koch  in  Arnim,  Klemens  urnt  Bettina  Brentano 
(D.N.L.,  146,  i  and  2  [1891]),  and  by  J.  Dohmke,  Leipzig  [1893].  Cp.  R. 
Steig,  Achim  von  Arnim  und  Clemens  Brentano,  Stuttgart,  1894. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  459 

Young  Brentano  was  born  at  Ehrenbreitstein  in  1778.  Noth- 
ing could  have  been'  more  distasteful  to  him  than  the  com- 
mercial career  for  which  he  was  intended,  and  in  1797,  after 
his  father's  death,  he  went  to  study  at  the  University  of 
Jena.  Here  he  stood  in  personal  relations  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Romantic  School,  and  became  intoxicated  with 
their  ideas  and  their  poetry.  For  the  next  few  years  he  led 
a  wild,  unsettled  life,  wandering  like  a  medieval  Spielmann 
from  place  to  place,  with  a  guitar  slung  over  his  back.  In 
1800,  he  wrote  his  first  book,  Gustav  Wasa^-  a  satire — in 
which  Tieck's  influence  predominates  —  on  Kotzebue  and 
other  fashionable  writers  of  the  day.  In  the  following  year 
he  published  a  novel  in  two  volumes,  Godwi,  oder  das  Godwi, 
steinerne  Bild  der  Mutter :  ein  verwilderter  Roman  von  Maria?  l8oi> 
Although  Brentano's  brother  regarded  this  romance  as  too 
extravagant  to  include  in  the  Gesammelte  Schriften,  it  forms, 
nevertheless,  an  important  link  between  the  old  Romanticism 
and  the  new.  Godwi  begins  as  an  unmistakable  imitation  of 
William  Lovell,  but  in  the  second  volume  the  author  would 
seem  to  have  taken  Lucinde  as  his  model.  "  Verwildert " 
Godwi  certainly  is,  in  plot  as  in  ideas,  but  it  is  the  repre- 
sentative work  of  Brentano's  youth,  and  contains  the  germs  of 
all  his  subsequent  work  :  with  all  its  faults,  Godwi  is,  at  least, 
a  better  novel  than  Lucinde,  whose  freedom  and  unrestraint 
had  attracted  Brentano  in  Jena.  Embedded  in  Godwi  are  a 
few  songs  which,  subsequently,  passed  over  into  Des  Knaben 
Wunderhorn  ;  here,  too,  is  the  poem,  Die  lustigen  Musikanten, 
which,  in  1803,  was  expanded  into  a  "Singspiel."  Die  Lore 
Lay,  the  ballad  of  the  Rhine  siren,  remodelled  by  Heine  in 
his  familiar  Volkslied,  is  also  to  be  found  in  Godwi,  as  well  as 
several  verses  of  the  fine  Erndtelied,  suggested  to  Brentano  by 
a  Latin  hymn  : — 

"  Es  ist  ein  Schnitter,  der  heisst  Tod, 
Er  maht  das  Korn,  wenn's  Gott  gebot 
Schon  wetzt  er  die  Sense, 
Dass  schneidend  sie  glanze  ; 
Bald  wird  er  dich  achneiden, 
Du  musst  es  nur  leiden  ; 
Musst  in  den  Erndtekranz  hinein. 
Hiite  dich,  schiines  Bliimelein  ! "  8 


1  Ed.  J.  Minor,  Litteraturdenkmale,  15,  Heilbronn,  1883. 

2  Cp.  A.  Kerr,  Godwi,  Berlin,  1898.     '  »  Werke,  i,  519. 


460 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Sophie 

Brentano, 

1770-1806. 


A  us  der 

Chronika 

eines  fah- 

renden 

Schiilers, 

1818. 


L.  A.  von 

Arnim, 

1781-1831. 


Early 
novels. 


In  1803,  Brentano  married  Sophie  Schubart  (1770-1806), 
who  was  also  engaged  in  literary  work  :  as  the  wife  of  Mereau, 
a  librarian  in  Jena,  she  had  been  one  of  the  contributors 
to  Schiller's  Musenalmanache.  Her  first  marriage  proved  an 
unhappy  one,  and,  after  a  few  years,  was  annulled.  In  1800, 
and  again  in  1802,  she  published  Gedichte^  and  these  were 
followed  by  a  novel  and  several  volumes  of  translations.  About 
the  time  of  his  marriage,  Brentano  wrote  the  most  delicately 
beautiful  of  all  his  prose  works,  Aus  der  Chronika  eines  fah- 
renden  Schiilers  (not  published  until  1818),  which,  however, 
remained  a  fragment.  In  this  faithful  imitation  of  an  old 
chronicle  there  is  a  truer  medieval  spirit  than  in  the  novels 
of  either  Tieck  or  Novalis,  to  whom  the  middle  ages  were, 
after  all,  only  a  poetic  fairyland.  In  1804,  the  Brentanos 
settled  in  Heidelberg,  where,  during  the  following  year,  they 
were  joined  by  Achim  von  Arnim. 

Ludwig  Achim  von  Arnim2  was  a  calmer,  more  self-possessed 
man  than  his  friend ;  his  temperament  was  serious  and  char- 
acteristically northern,  while  Brentano  had  the  lightness  of  the 
south  in  his  blood.  Brentano's  favourite  form  of  expression 
was  the  lyric,  while  Arnim,  on  the  other  hand,  found  the  epic 
breadth  of  prose  fiction  more  congenial  to  him.  Arnim  came 
of  a  good  Brandenburg  family,  and  was  born  at  Berlin,  in  1781. 
He  studied  in  Gottingen  and  Halle,  mainly  natural  science, 
and  his  first  publications  were  on  scientific  subjects.  In  1800, 
with  the  aid  of  Novalis  and  the  physicist  Ritter,  Arnim  came 
into  touch  with  the  group  of  writers  in  Jena ;  shortly  after- 
wards he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Brentano  and  of  the 
latter's  Frankfort  friends,  who  would  seem  definitely  to  have 
turned  his  attention  from  science  to  literature.  The  next  few 
years  Arnim  spent  in  travel ;  he  visited  England  and  Scotland, 
and,  in  short  stories  and  sketches,  revealed  to  his  countrymen 
the  romantic  side  of  Scottish  life  and  scenery  long  before 
the  Waverlcy  Novels  were  written.  His  first  ambitious  novel, 
Hollins  Liebeleben?  in  which  the  influence  of  Werther^  Lovell, 
and  Godwi  may  be  traced,  appeared  in  1802,  and  was  sub- 
sequently incorporated  in  Grafin  Dolores.  The  fantastic  frag- 

1  Cp.   M.   Mendheim,  Lyrik  der  klassischen  Pcriode,  a  (D. N.L.,  135,  2), 
172  ff. 

*  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  22  vols.,   Berlin,   1853-56;    selections  edited  by  M. 
Koch  in  D.N.  L.,  146,  and  by  J.  Dohmke,  Leipzig  [1893].    Cp.  also  R.  Steig,  I.e. 

*  Ed.  J.  Minor,  Freiburg,  1883. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  461 

ment,  Ariels  Offenbarung,  followed   in    1805,   in   which   year 
Arnim  made  Heidelberg  his  home. 

Once  before  in  the  history  of  German  literature,  it  will 
be  remembered,  an  important  movement  had  originated  in 
Heidelberg;  and  the  young  Romanticists  who,  in  1805  and  Heidelberg 
1806,  assembled  there  recalled  with  pride1  that,  nearly  two  ofRo^an- 
hundred  years  previously,  Martin  Opitz  had  made  Heidelberg  a  titism. 
centre  for  the  German  Renaissance.  Throughout  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  University  of  Heidelberg  had  not  taken 
as  large  a  share  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  nation  as  that 
of  Leipzig,  Konigsberg,  Halle,  Gottingen,  or  Jena.  Suddenly, 
however,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a  few 
years  before  the  founding  of  Berlin  University,  that  of  Heidel- 
berg burst  into  activity;  G.  F.  Creuzer (1771-1858),  a  classical 
scholar,  who  was  in  intimate  sympathy  with  Romantic  ideas, 
was  invited  to  occupy  a  chair  in  Heidelberg ;  he  in  turn  was 
followed  by  the  jurist  A.  F.  J.  Thibaut  (1772-1840),  and,  as 
representatives  of  classical  philology,  by  the  poet  Voss  and 
P.  A.  Bockh  (1785-1867).  Efforts  were  also  made  to  obtain 
Schelling,  Savigny,  and  Tieck,  but  without  success.  Thus,  for 
a  few  years,  from  1805  on,  Heidelberg  was  both  in  literature 
and  scholarship  a  centre  for  the  Romantic  Movement.  The 
event  which  gave  the  school  its  characteristic  stamp  was  the 
publication,  in  the  summer  of  1805,  of  the  first  volume  of  Des  Des 
Knaben  Wunderhorn?  to  which,  in  1808,  two  other  volumes 
were  added.  horn, 

The  collection  of  Volkslieder  which  Arnim  and  Brentano  l8°s-8. 
edited  under  this  strange  title — it  was  the  subject  of  the  opening 
poem — is  one  of  the  positive  achievements  of  German  Roman- 
ticism. What  Herder  had  effected  in  the  cosmopolitan  spirit 
of  his  century,  the  two  Heidelberg  poets  carried  out  upon  a 
national  basis.  The  difference  is  significant.  The  Stimmen 
der  Volker  and  the  Wunderhorn  belong  to  two  widely  different 
eras  of  intellectual  development — on  the  one  hand,  cosmopoli- 
tan humanism,  on  the  other,  Romantic  nationalism  and  indi- 
vidualism. Although  neither  Arnim  nor  Brentano  was  a  lyric 
genius  of  the  first  order,  both  had  Herder's  talent  for  repro- 
ducing the  style  of  the  Volkslied  with  absolute  faithfulness. 

1  See,  for  instance,  Brentano's  Lied  von  eines  Stvdenten  Ankunft  in  Heidel- 
berg vnd  stinem  Traum  aufder  Briicke  (  Werke,  a,  3  ff.) 

a  Ed.  A.  Birlinger  and  W.  Crecelius,  a  vols.,  Wiesbaden,  1872-76;  also  in 
Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  1251-56,  Leipzig,  1880. 


462  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

The  editors  of  the  Wunderhorn  were  criticised — among  others, 
by  Voss,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  did  not  stand  on  the 
best  terms  with  the  younger  Heidelberg  poets  —  for  having 
unduly  tampered  with  the  original  Volkslieder  :  what,  however, 
they  aimed  at  producing  was  not  a  philological  text,  but  a  song- 
book  for  the  people.  And  they  undoubtedly  succeeded.  Des 
Knaben  Wunderhorn  became  an  accepted  standard  for  the  Ger- 
man Volkslied,  and  awakened  an  interest  in  the  national  past 
more  effectually  than  did  A.  W.  Schlegel's  lectures,  or  the  fan- 
tastic romances  in  which  Schlegel's  friends  embodied  their  con- 
ceptions of  the  middle  ages.  In  other  words,  the  Wunderhorn 
is  the  key  to  the  whole  later  "  Romantik."  The  popularity 
of  the  book  was  immediate  and  widespread ;  Goethe,  to  whom 
the  first  volume  was  dedicated,  welcomed  it  in  hearty  words, 
while  lyric  poetry  from  Eichendorff  to  Martin  Greif,  and  music 
from  Schubert  to  the  present  day,  are  deep  in  its  debt.1 
J.  J.  von  In  1807,  induced  by  the  success  of  the  Wunderhorn,  Johann 

JosePn  von  Gorres 2  collected  and  edited  Die  teutschen  Volks- 
biicfier.  Although  it  is  usual  to  associate  Gorres  more  with 
politics  than  with  literature,  his  importance  as  a  member  of  the 
Heidelberg  group  cannot  be  overlooked.  Whether  in  politics, 
journalism,  or  literature,  what  he  had  to  say  was  always  sug- 
gestive ;  he  was  one  of  those  thinkers  to  whom  an  intellectual 
movement  owes  its  ideas.  Gorres  began  life  as  a  partisan  of  the 
French  Revolution,  but  Paris,  which  he  visited  in  1799,  disap- 
pointed him  bitterly.  Between  this  date  and  about  1813  lay 
the  most  productive  years  of  his  life,  and  from  1806  to  1808 
he  lived  in  Heidelberg,  when  his  lectures  drew  large  audiences. 
Besides  the  Teutschen  Volksbitcher^  he  edited  Lohengrin  (1813) 
and  Altdetttsche  Volks-  und  Meisterlieder  (\Z\^\  and  translated 
Das  Heldenbuch  von  Iran  (1820).  In  1813,  he  threw  him- 
self into  the  national  movement  with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
fervid  temperament,  and,  as  long  as  he  controlled  it  (1814-16), 
the  Rheinische  Merktir  was  the  most  influential  political  journal 
of  its  time.  Subsequently,  his  leanings  to  mysticism  and  ultra- 
montanism  became  more  pronounced,  and  his  earlier  activity 
was  forgotten.  From  1836  on,  he  lived  in  Munich,  where  he 
died  in  1848. 

1  Cp.  M.  Koch  in  D.N.L.,  146,  i,  i,  Ixix. 

2  Gesammeltc  Schriften,  ed.  M.  Gorres,  6  vols.,  Munich,  1854-60.    Cp.  J.  N. 
Sepp.  Gorres  (Geisteshelden,  23),  Berlin,  1896,  and  M.  Koch,  D.N.L.,  146,  i, 
i,  iff. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  463 

Just  as  the  organ  of  the  Romantic  School  had  been  the 
Athenceum,  that  of  the  Heidelberg  circle  was  the  Zeitung  fur  Zeitung 
Einsiedler  (1808),  a  journal  inspired  by  the  spirit  that  is  to  be  ^%^*~ 
found  in  the  Wunderhorn  and  Gorres'  Volksbiicher.    Short-lived   1808. 
as   was  the  Zeitung  fur  Einsiedler — the  title  was  afterwards 
changed  to  Trost  Einsamkeit1 — it  bore  witness  to  the  many 
friends  and  widespread  sympathy  which   the  movement  had 
won  throughout  Germany.     Among  its  contributors  were  Jean 
Paul  on  the  one  hand,  and  Uhland  on  the  other    and  here,  too, 
Jacob  and  Wilhelm  Grimm,  the  founders  of  German  philology,  Jacob 
published  their  first  articles.2     Both  born  in  Hanau,  Jacob  in  Grgmnl'6 
17&5>  Wilhelm  in  the  following  year,  the  Grimms  commenced  Wilhelm 
their  studies  in  Marburg  under  Savigny,  who  awakened  their  GrJI?ir^1 
interest  in  the  Romantic  movement.     As  far  as  literature  is 
concerned,  their  most  important  works  were  the  Kinder-  und 
Haus-Mdrchen  (1812-15),  anc^  tne  Deutschen  Sagen  (1816-18). 
While  these  collections  by  the  brothers  Grimm  are  examples 
of  the  same  understanding  for  the  untutored  popular  imagina- 
tion as  is  to  be  found  in  the  Wunderhorn,  they  reflect  even 
more  faithfully  the  nai've  heart  of  the  German  people.     Per- 
haps for  this  very  reason  no  Romantic  book  is,  at  the  present 
day,   more   living   than   Grimms'  Fairy   Tales ;    and   not   in 
Germany  alone,  but  to  all  peoples,  these  Mcirchen  have  become 
the  acknowledged  type  of  the  fairy-tale  of   the  people,   as 
opposed  to  the  fairy  -  tale  that   is  written  with  a  conscious 
object — be  it  didactic  or  satiric. 

In  place  of  the  fantastic  and  subjective  interpretation  of  the 
German  past,  which  even  the  first  Romantic  School  had 
favoured,  the  Grimms  insisted  upon  scientific  methods  of 
investigation,  which,  above  all  things,  placed  facts  before 
theories.  In  this  way  they  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
modern  study  of  Germanic  antiquity,  and  through  their  pupils 
and  fellow  -  workers  —  prominent  among  whom  was  Karl 
Lachmann  (1793-1851)  —  exerted  a  wide  influence  upon 
linguistic  and  literary  research.  The  brothers  Grimm  stand 
at  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  of  academic  scholarship,  in 
which  the  cold,  impersonal  ideals  of  the  preceding  century 
gave  place  to  the  interpretative  criticism  of  Romanticism  : 

1  Edited  by  F.  Pfaff,  Freiburg.  1883. 

2  Cp.  W.  Scherer,  Jacob  Grimm,  and  ed.,  Berlin,  1885,  and  C.  Franke,  Die 
Briider  Grimm,  Dresden,  1899. 


464  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

from  their  time  onwards,  philological  study  was  inspired  by 
Romantic  ideals. 

Both  brothers — they  were  as  inseparable  in  their  life  as  in 
their  work — were  librarians,  first  in  Kassel,  then,  from  1829 
on,  in  Gottingen.  In  1841,  they  settled  in  Berlin,  where, 
as  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  they  gave  lectures 
at  the  University.  Wilhelm  died  in  1859,  Jacob  in  1863. 
Of  Jacob  Grimm's  works,  the  three  most  noteworthy  are 
the  Deutsche  Grammatik  (of  which  the  first  volume  appeared 
in  1819,  the  fourth  in  1837),  Deutsche  Rechtsalterthumer 
(1828),  and  Deutsche  Mythologie  (1835),  works  which  were, 
and  still  are,  an  indispensable  basis  for  the  study  of  German 
antiquity.  Later  in  life,  both  brothers  made  a  beginning  to 
the  great  Deutsche  Worterbuch  (1852  ff.),  which  has  not  yet 
reached  its  conclusion.  Wilhelm  Grimm's  independent  work 
is  less  voluminous  than  his  brother's  ;  his  chief  contribution  to 
German  scholarship  was  Die  deutsche  Heldensage  (1829),  but 
he  also  edited  a  number  of  older  German  texts. 

By  1808,  the  little  Heidelberg  circle  of  poets  and  scholars 
who  had  originated  so  fruitful  a  movement  had,  to  a  great 
extent,  broken  up.  A  certain  tie  was,  it  is  true,  still  afforded 
by  the  Heidelberger  Jahrbiicher  (founded  in  1808),  but  even 
this  did  not  last  long,  and  Heidelberg  soon  relapsed  into  its 
former  unimportance.  But  in  Berlin,  where  they  both  settled 
in  1809,  Arnim  and  Brentano  resumed  their  comradeship,  and 
here  they  were  joined  by  Eichendorff — whose  acquaintance 
they  had  made  in  Heidelberg, — Fouque,  and  Chamisso. 
These  writers  brought  into  what  might  be  called  the  second 
stage  of  the  younger  Romantic  movement,  a  more  catholic  and 
productive  literary  spirit.  Before,  however,  discussing  the  new 
members  of  the  group,  we  must  turn  to  the  later  writings  of 
Arnim  and  Brentano,  for  neither  of  these  poets  published  his 
most  characteristic  work — the  Wunderhorn  excepted — while 
in  Heidelberg. 

Arnim's  Arnim  left  a  considerable  number  of  dramatic  works,  but 

later  work.  ^e  pOSsesse(i  even  less  real  dramatic  talent  than  his  brother 
Romanticists ;  his  plays  are  lacking  in  dramatic  qualities  and 
not  adapted  for  the  stage.  He  had,  however,  an  inex- 
haustible wealth  of  imagination,  the  true  Romantic  fantasy; 
and  dramas,  such  as  Halle  und  Jerusalem  (1811) — which  con- 
tains a  version  of  Gryphius's  Gardenia  und  Celinde — and  Die 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  465 

Pdpstin  Johanna  (1813),  are  characteristically  Romantic  in 
style  and  spirit.  Arnim  was  only  really  eminent  as  a  novelist ; 
and  while  Brentano  was  superior  to  him  as  lyric  poet  and 
dramatist,  in  prose  fiction  he  carved  out  for  himself  a  path  on 
which  few  were,  at  that  time,  able  to  follow  him.  There  is 
much  of  indifferent  value  in  the  "  Novellen  "  which  form  the 
bulk  of  his  Schriften,  but,  however  weak  a  story  may  be,  Arnim 
has  always  the  art  of  picturesque  narrative.  Armuth,  Reich-  Grdfin 
thum,  Schuld  und  Busse  der  Grdfin  Dolores  (1809),  one  of  the  glares , 
most  interesting  of  his  longer  books,  is  the  study  of  a  woman 
who  exerts  her  powers  of  coquetry  to  win  herself  a  husband  : 
she  is  subsequently  faithless  to  him,  then  repents  and  lives 
happily  for  many  years,  until,  on  the  anniversary  of  her  fault, 
a  sudden  death  overtakes  her.  The  denouement  recalls  the 
"  Schicksalsdrama,"  and  the  story,  as  a  whole,  is  drawn  out 
to  a  wearisome  length  by  irrelevant  and  fantastic  episodes. 

Arnim's  chief  work,  and  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  Ger- 
man Romantic  literature,  is  the  historical  novel,  Die  Kronen-  Die 
wdchter.  of  which  two  books  were  published  in  1817,  under  Kr°*fn' 

,  -ir.777  •  T-    ,  iM  i  •    ,    wackier. 

the  title,  Bertholds  erstes  und  zweites  Leben,  while  a  third  1817. 
book  was  printed  from  the  MS.  after  Arnim's  death.  It  is 
in  many  respects  unfortunate  that  Die  Kronenwdchter  should 
have  remained  a  fragment ;  for  no  historical  Romantic  novel 
of  its  time  was  conceived  and  planned  on  so  imposing  a 
scale.  As  a  background,  Arnim  chose  the  age  of  the  Re- 
formation ;  Maximilian  I.,  Luther,  and  Dr  Faust  are  per- 
sonages of  the  novel.  The  "  Crown  Guardians "  is  a 
mysterious  society  which  watches  over  the  Hohenstaufen 
dynasty,  and  seeks  out  and  educates  descendants  of  Bar- 
barossa,  in  the  hope  that  they  may  one  day  revive  the 
glories  of  the  German  Empire.  One  of  these  descendants, 
Berthold,  is  brought  up  in  the  little  Hohenstaufen  town 
of  Waiblingen ;  playing  as  a  child  in  the  ruins  of  Barbar- 
ossa's  castle,  a  mysterious  guide  shows  him  its  wonders, 
and  a  presentiment  of  his  mission  dawns  on  him. 

"  Eine  Reihe  ritterlicher  Steinbilder,"  he  tells  the  old  watchman, 
Martin,  "  steht  noch  fest  und  wiirdig  zwischen  ausgebrannten  Fen- 
stern  am  Hauptgebaude,  ich  sahe  auch  das  Seitengebaude,  ich 
sahe  im  Hintergrunde  einen  seltsamen,  dicht  vervvachsenen  Garten 
und  allerlei  kiinstliche  Malerei  an  der  Mauer,  die  ihn  umgiebt — 
das  ist  Barbarossas  Palast."  "  So  seltsam  rufen  sie  die  Ihren," 

2  G 


466 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Short 
stories. 


DieErfin- 
dung  des 
Raen- 
kranffst 
1852. 


sagte  Martin  in  sich,  "  so  viel  Tausende  haben  als  Kinder  unter 
diesen  Mauern  gespielt,  und  Keinem  fiel  dies  Gebaude  auf,  Keiner 
dachte  des  Barbarossa."  "Es  ist  mein,"  rief der  Knabe,  "ich  will 
es  ausbauen  und  will  den  Garten  reinigen,  ich  weiss  schon,  wo  die 
Mutter  wohnen  soil.  Komm  mit,  Vater,  sieh  es  an  !  Du  wirst  sie 
alle  wieder  kennen  in  den  Steinbildern,  unsre  alten  Herzoge  und 
Kaiser,  von  denen  du  mir  so  viel  erzahlt  hast." 1 

When  he  grows  up,  Berthold  visits  Augsburg  and  is  brought 
into  personal  relations  with  Maximilian's  court,  of  which  Arnim 
gives  a  picturesque  description ;  but  from  here  on,  the  story 
begins  to  suffer  under  the  author's  love  of  the  fantastic  and 
the  supernatural,  and  loses  much  of  its  interest  for  the  modern 
reader.  Arnim  had  his  full  share  of  the  characteristic  Ro- 
mantic failings ;  he  took  over  from  his  predecessors  much  of 
that  vagueness,  that  lack  of  bold,  clear  outline,  which,  more 
than  anything  else,  explains  why  the  Romantic  literature  had 
so  little  hold  on  the  popular  mind.  Of  his  other  stories,  the 
most  characteristic  are  Isabella  von  Agypten  (1812),  Der  tolle 
Invalide  anf  dem  Fort  Ratonneau  (1818),  and  Fiirst  Ganzgott 
und  Stinger  Halbgott  (published  in  1835).  In  1811,  Arnim 
married  Clemens  Brentano's  sister,  Bettina — the  Bettina  who 
had  sat  at  Goethe's  feet,  and  who,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  sub- 
sequent chapter,  became  the  most  famous  woman-writer  of 
her  time.  But  that  was  not  until  after  her  husband's  death 
in  1831. 

Brentano's  genius  is  seen  to  most  advantage  in  his  Miirchen 
and  short  stories,  in  the  collection  of  poems  which  forms  Die 
Erfindung  des  Rosenkranzes,  and  in  the  Romantic  drama,  Die 
Griindung  Prags.  At  the  present  day,  however,  he  is  re- 
membered chiefly  as  a  story-teller,  and  none  of  his  works  is 
so  popular  as  the  powerful  village  tragedy,  Die  Geschichte  vom 
braven  Kasperl  und  dem  schonen  A  finer/  (1817),  and  the  fairy 
tale,  Gockel,  Hinkel  und  Gackeleia  (1838).  The  latter,  un- 
questionably the  finest  of  Brentano's  Marchen,  is  told  with 
a  quiet  ironic  humour,  although  marred,  like  most  invented, 
or  partly  invented,  fairy-tales,  by  over  -  elaboration.  Die 
Erfindung  des  Rosenkranzes  and  Die  Griindung  Prags,  each 
of  which  occupies  an  entire  volume  in  Brentano's  collected 
writings,  testify  to  the  extraordinary  mastery  he  possessed 
over  the  technicalities  of  verse  and  rhyme.  Die  Erfindung 
des  Rosenkranzes  (begun  in  1803,  published  in  1852),  based 

1  M.  Koch's  edition  (D.N.L.,  146,  i,  2),  28. 


CHAP.  IV.]  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  467 

on  religious  legends,  amongst  others  that  of  Tannhauser,  is 
an  allegory,  in  which  the  poet  has  introduced  episodes  from 
his  own  life  and  the  lives  of  his  friends :  it  is  full  of  fine 
poetry  and  delicate  "  Stimmungsbilder,"  but  its  symbolism, 
and  the  monotony  that  is  unavoidable  in  a  long  poem  of  this 
nature,  have  stood  in  the  way  of  its  success.  Die  Griin-  Die 
dung  Prags  (1815),  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  most  striking 
example  of  those  half-epic,  half-lyric  dramas  which  had  been  1815 
introduced  into  German  literature  by  Tieck.  Brentano's  play 
is  based  on  a  popular  saga  which  Grillparzer,  a  generation  later, 
made  the  subject  of  one  of  his  noblest  tragedies.  Libussa, 
daughter  of  Duke  Krokus,  is,  after  her  father's  death,  ap- 
pointed regent  of  Bohemia ;  she  chooses  as  her  husband, 
Primislaus,  a  peasant,  whom  her  messenger,  according  to  an 
essential  element  in  the  saga,  finds  behind  his  plough,  and 
with  him  she  founds  the  "  Golden  City  "  of  Prague.  A  com- 
parison with  Grillparzer  is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question  ; 
for,  although  Brentano  could  occasionally  write  dramatic  verse, 
he  had  as  little  of  the  true  dramatic  faculty  as  either  Arnim 
or  Tieck.  But  in  the  handling  of  the  verse  there  is  a  firm- 
ness which  makes  even  Tieck's  poetry  seem  a  trivial  playing 
with  strange  metres,  and  there  is  also  a  restraint  in  the 
treatment  of  the  theme  which  is  uncommon  in  Romantic 
literature.  Die  Griindung  Prags  met  with  comparatively  little 
favour  in  its  day,  and  is  now  seldom  read,  but  it  is,  none  the 
less,  one  of  the  most  imposing  creations  of  the  Heidelberg 
School. 

Brentano's  subsequent  life  was  unsettled.  In  1816,  he  fell 
passionately  in  love  with  Luise  Hensel  (I798-I876),1  herself 
a  religious  poetess  of  unusual  gifts,  and  this  love-affair  was 
followed  by  a  strange  devotion  to  the  visionary  nun,  Anna 
Katharina  Emmerich,  whose  revelations  he  recorded  (Das 
bittere  Leiden  unsers  Herrn  Jesu  Chris ti,  1833).  Brentano 
felt  himself  more  and  more  attracted  by  the  Catholic  Church, 
in  which  he  had  been  born  and  educated,  and  the  older  he 
grew,  the  larger  was  the  share  which  religion  and  meditation 
had  in  his  life  and  work.  He  died  at  Aschaffenburg  in  1842. 

1  L.  Hensel's  Lieder,  7th  ed.,  Paderborn,  1892.     Cp.  F.  Binder,  L.  Hensel, 
ein  Lebensbild,  Freiburg,  1885. 


468 


CHAPTER   V. 

ROMANTICISM    IN    BERLIN.       THE    PHILOSOPHIC    MOVEMENT. 

Roman-  THE  part  which  the  city  of  Berlin  played  in  the  history  of 
Berlin '"  Romanticism  was  a  remarkable  one.  In  this,  the  last  strong- 
hold of  Rationalism,  was  founded  the  first  Romantic  School, 
and  with  the  lectures,  Uber  schone  Litteratur  und  Kunst, 
which  A.  W.  Schlegel  delivered  in  the  winter  of  1801-2,  the 
movement  inaugurated  by  the  school  may  be  said  to  have 
taken  root.  But  the  city  of  Voltaire  and  Frederick  the  Great, 
of  Ramler  and  Nicolai,  changed  slowly,  and,  even  at  the 
present  day,  in  spite  of  the  cosmopolitan  character  due  to  its 
increased  political  responsibilities,  Berlin  is  still  pre-eminently 
the  city  of  Rationalism.  The  forces  at  work  in  the  capital 
were  thus  diametrically  opposed  to  Romanticism,  and  yet, 
throughout  the  whole  history  of  the  movement,  Berlin  would 
seem  to  have  had  a  fascination  for  the  younger  writers  like 
that  of  the  candle  for  the  moth.  Not  only  the  Schlegels 
and  Novalis  of  the  older  generation — Tieck  was,  of  course, 
a  native  of  Berlin — but  also  one  after  another  of  the  South. 
German  Romanticists,  who  have  just  been  discussed,  found 
their  way  to  the  Prussian  capital.  The  secret  of  this  irre- 
sistible attraction  is  that,  at  that  time,  Berlin  possessed,  in  a 
higher  degree  than  any  other  German  town,  an  intellectual 
society  and  a  concentrated  literary  life.  Tieck's  ambitions, 
it  will  be  remembered,  had  been  kindled  by  his  admission 
to  the  circle  at  the  head  of  which  stood  the  composer  and 
litterateur  J.  F.  Reichardt  (1752-1814);  and  to  this  circle 
— which  was  the  first  to  look  upon  the  new  movement  with 
favour — also  belonged  K.  F.  Zelter  (1758-1832),  Goethe's  in- 
timate friend.  The  most  important  centres  of  Romanticism 
in  Berlin  were,  however,  the  brilliant  Jewish  salons  presided 


CHAP.  V.]  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  469 

over  by  women  of  genius,  such  as  Henrietta  Herz  (1764- 
1847)  and  Rahel  Levin  (I77I-I833),1  who  subsequently 
married  K.  A.  Varnhagen  von  Ense  (1785-1858).  It  was 
Henriette  Herz  who  brought  Schleiermacher  and  Friedrich 
Schlegel  together,  and  in  her  house  the  latter  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Dorothea  Veit,  who  afterwards  became  his 
wife.  These  salons,  which  found  a  common  bond  in  their 
unequivocal  worship  of  Goethe,  were  the  focuses  of  North 
German  literature  at  the  beginning  of  the  century. 

In  1809,  as  we  have  seen,  both  Arnim  and  Brentano  ex- 
changed  Heidelberg  for    Berlin.      As   popular  writers,   both 
were  surpassed  in  the  eyes  of  their  contemporaries  by  another 
member  of  their  group,   Friedrich  de  la   Motte  Fouque,   a  F.  de  la 
protegt  vi  A.  W.  Schlegel.2     Born  in  Brandenburg,  in  1777,    ^"^ 
of  a  military  family,  Fouque"   began  to  write  in    1801,  and   1777-1843. 
from  this  date  onwards  published  his  romances  in  rapid  suc- 
cession.    Chivalry,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Scandinavian 
sagas  on  the  other,  were  the  two  poles  round  which  his  work 
turned ;  in  other  words,  his  novels  are  the  direct  successors 
of  the  "  Ritterromane  "  which  were  so  widely  read  at  the  close 
of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang."     Of  his  romances  of  chivalry, 
the  best  is  Der  Zauberring  (1813),  which  contained  enough  DerZ.au- 
of  the  spirit  of  Fouque's  own  time  to  appeal  to  the  younger  ******* 
generation,   then  fighting  for  freedom  from  the  Napoleonic 
yoke.      The  theme  of  Die  Fahrten   Thiodolfs  des  Islanders 
(1815)  is  taken  from  northern   mythology,  and  a  northern 
saga  is  also  the  basis  of  the  romance  of  Sintram  und  seine 
Gefdhrten  (1814).     The  most  pleasing  and  unaffected  of  all 
Fouque's  works,   and  the  only  one  that  is  still  popular,  is 
Undine  (1811),  the  story  of  a  water -sprite  without  a  soul.    Undine, 
Undine   can,    however,    obtain    a   soul    by   marriage  with   a   l8ll< 
mortal,   and   a   knight,   Huldebrand   von    Ringstetten,    loves 
her  and  marries  her.     Her  uncle,  Kuhleborn,  is  determined 
to  lure  her  back  to  her  native  element,  and,  with  his  aid, 
a  certain  Berthalda   estranges    Huldebrand's   love   from   his 
unearthly  wife.     Undine  returns  to  her  kinsfolk,  but,  on  the 
day   that    Huldebrand   marries    Berthalda,    she   returns    and 
kills  him  with  a  kiss.     Although  Fouque's  style  is  not  free 

1  Cp.  O.  Berdrow,  Rahel  Varnhagen,  Berlin,  1900.  Her  husband's  Aus- 
gewdhlte  Schriften  are  collected  in  13  vols.,  Leipzig,  1871-76. 

3  Ausgeivahlte  Wtrke,  12  vols.,  Halle,  1841 ;  a  selection,  edited  by  M. 
Koch,  in  D.N.L.,  146,  2,  i  [1893]. 


470  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

from  mannerisms,  he  is  able  to  endow  miraculous  occurrences 
with  a  peculiar  naive  charm,  which  at  once  wins  the  reader's 
sympathy.  Unfortunately,  however,  in  almost  all  his  work 
there  is  an  excess  of  the  supernatural,  to  which  he  turns  for 
a  solution  of  every  psychological  difficulty:  his  ability  to  make 
character  the  source  of  motive  and  action  was  hardly  superior 
to  that  of  his  predecessors  in  the  "Sturm  und  Drang."  Be- 
sides novels,  Fouque  also  left  a  number  of  stirring  songs  and 
a  few  dramas  on  Scandinavian  themes,  similar  to  those  for 
which  Oehlenschlager,  the  leading  Danish  Romanticist,  had 
also  tried  to  gain  a  hearing  in  Germany.  The  most  interest- 
ing of  these  dramas,  if  only  as  a  forerunner  of  plays  on  the 
same  subject  by  Hebbel  and  Wagner,  is  the  "  Heldenspiel " 
of  Sigurd  der  Schlangentodter  (1808).  From  1820  onwards 
—  he  died  in  1843 — Fouque's  writings  deteriorate  rapidly: 
great  as  his  reputation  had  once  been,  he  outlived  it  by  more 
than  twenty  years. 

The  most  gifted  lyric  genius  among  the  Berlin  Roman- 
Adelbert  ticists  was  a  young  French  nobleman,  Louis  Charles  Adelaide 
y?n  .  de  Chamisso,  who  was  born  in  Champagne  in  1781,  and 
1781-1838!  is  known  to  German  literature  as  Adelbert  von  Chamisso.1 
When  the  poet  was  a  boy  of  eight,  his  family  had  to  flee 
from  the  terrors  of  the  Revolution  :  they  settled  in  Berlin, 
where  Chamisso  became  one  of  the  queen's  pages,  and  was 
educated  for  the  Prussian  military  service.  For  a  time  he 
hesitated  between  French  and  German  as  a  medium  of  ex- 
pression, but  an  introduction  to  Varnhagen  von  Ense  and  his 
friends  turned  the  balance  in  favour  of  German.  Chamisso's 
first  poems  appeared  in  the  Musenalmanach  (1804-6) — the 
so-called  "  Griine  Almanach " z — which  was  edited  by  him- 
self and  Varnhagen  von  Ense,  and  played  a  part  in  the 
movement  similar  to  that  of  the  Zeitung  fur  Einsiedler  in 
Heidelberg. 

Although  Chamisso  had  thus  written  poetry  as  early  as 
1804,  he  did  not  turn  seriously  to  literature  until  more 
than  twenty  years  later.  In  the  interval,  he  served  in  the 
field,  went  to  France  in  hope  of  a  professorship,  spent 
several  months  with  Madame  de  Stael  at  Coppet  on  Lake 

1  Editions  of  Chamisso's  works  by  M.  Koch,  4  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1883,  and 
O.  F.  Walzel  (D.N.L.,  148  [1892]). 

a  The  Mu  sen  almanack  fur  das  Jahr  1806  is  edited  by  L.  Geiger  in  the 
Berliner  Neudrucke,  a,  i  (1889). 


CHAP.  V.]  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  471 

Geneva,  and,  between  1815  and  1817,  made  a  voyage  round 
the  world.  On  his  return,  he  obtained  an  appointment  as 
keeper  of  the  Royal  Botanical  Collections  in  Berlin,  and 
here  he  remained  until  his  death  in  1838.  The  first  col- 
lected edition  of  his  Gedichte  did  not  appear  until  1831 — 
that  is  to  say,  long  after  Romanticism  had  passed  its  zenith. 
But  there  are  no  signs  of  decay  in  Chamisso's  lyrics ;  Chamisso's 
indeed,  the  Romantic  lyric,  as  a  whole,  was  immune  against  tyrics- 
degeneration.  Nor  does  anything  in  his  poetry  betray  the 
French  aristocrat;  on  the  contrary,  he  possessed  in  a  re- 
markable degree  the  characteristic  "  deutsche  Gemiit " ;  he 
delighted  in  simple  joys  and  sorrows,  and  described  them 
with  a  warmth  and  sentimentality  that  was  wholly  German. 
His  songs  of  this  class,  such  as  the  cycles  of  Frauen- 
Liebe  und  Lebcn  (1830)  and  Lebens  -  Lieder  und  Bilder 
(1831),  have,  in  spite  of  occasional  prosaic  and  unmusical 
verses,  become  almost  Volkslieder.  In  his  narrative  poems 
and  ballads,  such  as  Die  Lowenbraut  (1827),  Die  Gift-  Ballads. 
mischerin  (1828),  Das  Kruzifix  (1830),  and  Mateo  Falcone^ 
der  Corse  (1830),  he  strikes  a  more  original  note,  inclining 
to  the  bizarre  and  blood-curdling  subjects  favoured  by  the 
earlier  Romanticists.  Finest  of  all  is  Salas  y  Gomez  (1829), 
a  reminiscence  of  his  voyage  round  the  world : — 

"  Salas  y  Gomez  raget  aus  den  Fluthen 

Des  stillen  Meers,  ein  Felsen  kahl  und  bloss, 
Verbrannt  von  scheitelrechter  Sonne  Gluthen, 
Ein  SteingestelP  ohn'  alles  Gras  und  Moos, 
Das  sich  das  Volk  der  Vogel  auserkohr, 
Zur  Ruhstatt  im  bewegten  Meereschooss."1 

But  even  when  the  themes  of  his  ballads  are  sensational, 
Chamisso  can  ill  conceal  his  gentle,  sentimental  nature ;  the 
strong  dramatic  tones  of  Schiller,  or  even  Uhland,  were 
denied  to  him.  As  a  purely  lyric  poet,  he  is  most  of  an  in- 
novator in  the  translations  of  Beranger,  which  he  and  his 
friend,  F.  von  Gaudy,  made  in  1838:  these,  as  well  as  his 
own  imitations  of  Beranger's  political  lyric,  justify  us  in  men- 
tioning him  with  Uhland  as  a  forerunner  of  the  political  poets 
of  1830  and  1848.  As  a  prose-writer,  Chamisso  is  the  author 
of  one  of  the  most  popular  tales  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
Peter  Schlemihls  wundersame  Geschichte  (1814).  The  naive  1814. 

i  O.  F.  Walzel's  edition,  386. 


4/2  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

credulity  and  simplicity  which  characterised  Chamisso's  poetry 
made  him  an  admirable  story-teller,  especially  when,  as  in 
this  story  of  a  man  who  sells  his  shadow  to  the  devil,  the 
incredible  has,  by  means  of  minute,  realistic  touches,  to  be 
made  credible.  Peter  Schlemihl  receives  an  inexhaustible 
purse  in  exchange  for  his  shadow,  but  the  want  of  the  latter 
brings  him  into  so  many  difficulties  that  he  soon  rues  his 
bargain.  The  old  grey  gentleman  from  whom  he  obtained 
the  purse  appears  again,  and  offers  to  restore  his  shadow  to 
him  in  exchange  for  his  soul.  Schlemihl,  however,  will  have 
nothing  more  to  do  with  him,  throws  away  the  purse,  and, 
with  a  pair  of  seven-league  boots,  wanders  through  the  world. 
In  this  way  he  finds  again  the  peace  of  mind  he  had  lost. 
J.  von  Born  in  Upper  Silesia  in  1788,  Joseph  Freiherr  von 

dorff5"  88  Eichendorff1  had  become  acquainted  with  Arnim  and  his 
1857.'  '  friends  when  a  student  in  Heidelberg;  he  had  contributed 
to  the  Wunderhorn  and  assisted  Gorres  with  his  Volksbucher. 
The  stimulus  Eichendorff  received  in  Heidelberg  bore  rich 
fruit  in  the  two  years  (i  808-10)  which  he  spent  under  his 
father's  roof.  During  this  period  the  greater  part  of  his  novel, 
Ahnung  und  Gegenwart,  was  written,  as  well  as  many  of  his 
finest  lyrics :  among  the  latter,  the  Zeitlieder  bear  witness  to 
the  dejection  that  lay  upon  Germany  during  the  Napoleonic 
invasion.  In  1810,  Eichendorff  joined  the  Austrian  service, 
but  in  1813,  was  back  again  in  the  north,  fighting  in  the  ranks 
of  Liitzow's  chasseurs.  It  was  1816  before  he  was  able  to 
settle  down  to  a  quiet  life.  Entering  the  government  service 
in  Breslau,  he  rose  rapidly,  the  stages  in  his  advance  being 
marked  by  Danzig,  Konigsberg,  and  Berlin.  He  retired  from 
the  public  service  in  1844,  and  died  in  1857. 

In  Eichendorff 's  early  songs  and  in  the  love-poetry  (Friihling 
und  Liebe),  inspired  by  Luise  von  Larisch,  whom  he  met  in 
1810,  and  married  five  years  later,  he  is  unquestionably  the 
Lyrics.  greatest  lyric  poet  of  the  Romantic  Movement.  The  poetic 
genius  which  his  Gedichte  (collected  1837)  reveal  has  not 
many  sides,  but,  within  its  limits,  it  is  perfect :  in  the  history 
of  the  German  lyric,  indeed,  with  the  exception  of  Goethe  and 
Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  there  is  not  another  singer  who 

1  Sdmmtliche  foetiiche  Werke,  4  vpls.,  3rded.,  Leipzig,  1883;  a  selection, 
edited  by  R.  Dietze,  2  vols.,  Leipzig,  1891.  Cp.  M.  Koch.  Fouqut  und 
Eichendorff  (D.N.L.,  146,  2,  a  [1893]). 


CHAP.  V.]  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  473 

has  brought  the  national  lyric  feeling  to  more  exquisite  expres- 
sion than  Eichendorff.  He  is  essentially  a  poet  of  nature  ; 
the  beauty  of  spring  and  sunshine,  of  hill  and  dale  and  sky 
was  always  present  to  him ;  the  magic  voices  of  the  forest, 
which  had  sung  round  his  cradle,  accompanied  him  all  through 
his  life.  His  ideal,  like  that  of  all  the  German  singers,  from 
the  Spielleute  of  the  middle  ages  downwards,  is  a  free  "  Wan- 
derleben,"  and  Wanderlieder  occupy  the  place  of  honour  in 
his  collected  poems. 

"  Wem  Gott  will  rechte  Gunst  erweisen, 
Den  schickt  er  in  die  \veite  Welt, 
Dem  will  er  seine  Wunder  weisen 
In  Berg  und  Wald  und  Strom  und  Feld. 

Die  Tragen,  die  zu  Hause  liegen, 
Erquicket  nicht  das  Morgenroth, 
Sie  wissen  nur  vom  Kinderwiegen, 
Von  Sorgen,  Last  und  Noth  um  Brot. " 1 

Love  of  home  and  love  of  nature — these  are  the  two  poles 
of  Eichendorff's  genius,  the  passions  with  which  his  lyric 
poetry  is  inspired,  and  nowhere  are  they  more  beautifully 
expressed  than  in  Abschied,  a  poem  which  originally,  however, 
bore  the  title  Im  Walde  der  Heimath  : — 

"  O  Thaler  weit,  o  Hohen, 
O  schoner,  griiner  Wald, 
Du  meiner  Lust  und  Wehen 
Andiicht'ger  Aufenthalt ! 
Da  draussen,  stets  betrogen, 
Saus't  die  geschaft'ge  Welt, 
Schlag'  noch  einmal  die  Bogen 
Um  mich,  du  grimes  Zelt ! 

Wenn  es  beginnt  zu  tagen, 
Die  Erde  dampft  und  blinkt, 
Die  Vogel  lustig  schlagen 
Dass  dir  dein  Herz  erklingt : 
Da  mag  vergehn,  verwehen 
Das  triibe  Erdenleid, 
Da  sollst  du  auferstehen 
In  junger  Herrlichkeit  1 "  a 

As  a  love-poet,  Eichendorff  is  not  to  be  compared  with 
Goethe ;  neither  does  he  possess  Goethe's  wealth  of  ideas  and 
reflection ;  his  lyrics  are  further  removed  from  the  simplicity 

1  From  Aus  dent  Leben  ein.es  Taugenichls  (M.  Koch's  edition.  2,  64). 
"  Gedichte,  ed.  M.  Koch,  2,  224  f. 


474 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Eichen- 
writings 


Ahnung 


Ausdem 


nickts, 


of  the  Volkslied  than  either  Chamisso's  or  Wilhelm  Mailer's, 
and  his  range  is  more  limited  than  Heine's.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  exquisite  spirituality  and  his  power  of  attuning 
human  emotions  to  nature's  most  varied  moods,  give  him  a 
unique  place  among  German  singers. 

Eichendorff  left  a  varied  legacy  behind  him  ;  besides  lyrics 
and  novels,  he  wrote  dramas  —  Der  letzte  Held  von  Marienburg 
(1830),  Ezelin  von  Romano  (1828)  —  which  have  little  or  no 
dramatic  quality,  several  narrative  poems,  such  as  Robert  und 
Guiscard  (1855)  and  Lucius  (1857),  and,  in  the  last  years 
of  his  life,  he  was  much  engaged  in  criticism  and  literary 
history.  As  a  critic,  he  is  always  picturesque  and  suggestive, 
but  in  a  book  like  Uber  die  ethische  und  religiose  Bedeutung 
der  neuen  romantischen  Poesie  in  Deutschland(\'£afi\  he  stands 
at  too  great  a  distance  from  his  own  youth  to  understand  the 
movement  in  which  he  grew  up. 

Ahnung  und  Gegenwart,  Eichendorff's  first  novel,  which 
was  finished  in  l8ll>  although  not  published  until  1815, 
is  one  of  those  books  which  exemplify  the  ambitions  rather 
than  the  achievements  of  the  Romantic  Movement.  Like 
Franz  Sternbald,  it  is  a  novel  that  describes  many  wanderings  ; 
"  Stimmungsbilder  "  pass  before  the  reader  in  variegated,  un- 
ending succession,  all  dominated  by  a  deep  unhappy  love, 
which  is  at  last  consumed  in  its  own  flames  ;  but  there  is  as 
little  clearness  or  homogeneity  in  the  plot  as  in  a  novel  of 
Jean  Paul's,  an  author  by  whom  Eichendorff  would  seem  to 
have  been  influenced,  although  his  chief  model  was  natur- 
ally Wilhelm  Meister.  Like  so  many  of  the  Romantic  poets, 
Eichendorff  had  abundance  of  ideas  wherewith  to  fill  his  vessel, 
but  he  had  not  learned  the  art  of  making  the  vessel  itself; 
and  his  other  long  novel,  Dichter  und  ihre  Gesellen,  published 
in  1834,  is  even  more  loosely  constructed.  As  a  prose-writer, 
however,  he  is  the  author  of  one  masterpiece,  Aus  dem  Leben 
eines  Taugenichts  (1826).  This  wonderful  story  —  the  pearl 
of  Romantic  fiction  —  cannot  better  be  described  than  as  a 
crystallisation  in  prose  of  his  own  Wanderlieder.  The  story 
itself  is  trivial,  but,  in  this  age,  the  strength  of  the  novel  did 
not,  as  we  have  seen  so  often,  lie  in  its  plot.  A  young 
musician  sets  out  on  his  wanderings  with  his  fiddle  on  his 
back,  becomes  gardener  at  a  castle,  falls  in  love  with  what  he 
believes  to  be  a  countess,  is  carried  off  to  Italy  by  some 


CHAP.  V.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


475 


artists,  who  give  themselves  out  as  highwaymen.  But  never, 
perhaps,  did  a  writer  make  so  much  out  of  so  little.  Eichen- 
dorff  poured  into  this  book  his  poetic  aspiration,  his  dreamy 
delight  in  nature,  and  his  yearning  for  Italy,  that  goal  of  all 
Romantic  souls.  While  spacious,  unfinished  novels  like  Hein- 
rich  von  Ofterdingen  and  Die  Kronenwdchter  give  some  idea 
of  what  the  Romantic  writers  aimed  at,  it  is  to  a  gem  like 
Aus  dem  Leben  eines  Taugenichts  that  we  turn  to  see  what 
they  actually  achieved.  Eichendorffs  other  novels,  such  as 
Das  Marmorbild,  written  in  1817,  but  first  published  in  the 
same  volume  as  the  Taugenichts  in  1826,  and  Das  Schloss 
Diirande  (1837),  a  tragic  story  with  the  French  Revolution 
as  background,  although  more  pleasing  than  his  long  novels, 
cannot  compare  with  the  Taugenichts.  When  Eichendorff 
died  in  1857,  he  was  literally,  as  Heine  described  him,  "der 
letzte  Ritter  der  Romantik  " ;  but  he  had  outlived  the  move- 
ment, and  his  own  most  vital  work  was  done  before  he  had 
passed  middle  life. 

The  least  fruitful  side  of  Romanticism  was  its  practical 
politics.  To  Friedrich  Schlegel,  for  instance,  the  whole 
system  of  modern  government  seemed  out  of  joint,  and  he 
would  have  liked  to  see  Germany  converted  into  a  medieval 
state.  The  new  political  spirit  is  clearly  exemplified  in 
the  work  of  Friedrich  von  Gentz  (1764-1832)  and  Adam  F.  von 
Miiller  (1779-1829).  The  former  of  these  began  as  an  en-  Ggntz'8 
thusiastic  upholder  of  English  principles,  his  first  work  (1793) 
being  a  translation  of  Burke's  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in 
France,  and  in  the  period  of  Germany's  humiliation,  Gentz's 
hatred  of  Napoleon  found  hardly  less  eloquent  expression 
than  the  patriotism  of  Fichte  or  Arndt.  In  1802,  Gentz 
entered  the  service  of  Austria,  and  his  liberalism  gradually  dis- 
appeared ;  he  became  an  apologist  for  and  champion  of  Prince 
Metter'nich,  whose  rlgime  was,  after  all,  only  a  logical  con- 
sequence of  the  Romantic  ideas  as  applied  to  politics.  The 
typical  example  of  a  Romantic  politician,  however,  was  Adam  A.  Muller, 
Miiller.  A  mystic  and  reactionary  thinker,  Muller  recoiled  I779-i829- 
from  the  Prussian  methods  of  government,  and,  like  his  friend 
Gentz,  ultimately  found  in  Austria  the  sympathy  he  could 
not  obtain  at  home.  He  stood  in  a  nearer  relation  than  Gentz 
to  the  literary  circles  of  the  time,  and  besides  assisting  Kleist 
to  edit  his  journal,  Phobus  (1808),  he  delivered  lectures  Uber 


476 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


F.  K.  von 

Savigny, 
1779-1861. 


The  philo- 
sophic 
movement. 


G.  W.  F. 

Hegel, 
1770-1831. 


die  deutsche  Wissenschaft  und  Litteratur  (1806)  from  a  strictly 
Romantic  standpoint. 

Although  in  its  practical  politics  the  Romantic  spirit  thus 
failed  to  advance  the  movement  of  the  new  century,  it  pro- 
duced in  Friedrich  Karl  von  Savigny  (1779-1861)  the  most 
eminent  German  jurist.  This  writer's  conception  of  the  nature 
of  laws  sprang  from  the  supposition  that  human  society  is  an 
organic  growth,  a  theory  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
one  of  Herder's  legacies  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Savigny 
established  the  principle  that  a  system  of  laws  could  not  be 
imposed  upon  a  people  from  without,  but  must  be  evolved 
from  the  customs  and  usages  handed  down  by  tradition.  This 
was  the  kernel  of  his  work.  In  1810,  he  was  invited  to  be 
Professor  of  Roman  Law  in  the  new  University  of  Berlin, 
and  in  1815,  appeared  the  first  volume  of  his  Geschichte  des 
Romischen  Rechts  im  Mittelalter  (6  vols.,  1815-31).  To  the 
invigorating  influence  of  Romanticism  we  owe,  too,  the  epoch- 
making  Romische  Geschichte  (1811-32)  of  Barthold  Georg 
Niebuhr  (1776-1831)  and  the  Geschichte  der  Hohenstaufen  und 
ihrer  Zeit  (1823-25)  of  F.  L.  G.  von  Raumer  (1781-1873). 

The  three  great  philosophers  at  the  beginning  of  the  cen- 
tury, Fichte,  Schelling,  and  Hegel,  were  each,  at  one  period  or 
another  of  their  careers,  intimately  associated  with  the  literary 
movement.  Fichte,  from  whom,  as  we  have  seen,  the  school 
drew  its  practical  ethics,  was  essentially  a  pioneer,  while  Schel- 
ling was  the  philosopher  of  the  Romantic  idea,  the  thinker, 
whose  philosophy  harmonised  most  perfectly  with  that  of  the 
poets  and  critics.  Finally,  Hegel,  whose  thought  did  not 
attain  its  full  force  until  the  Romantic  Movement  was  on 
the  wane,  was  the  philosopher  of  Romantic  decay.  G.  W.  F. 
Hegel,1  born  in  Stuttgart  in  1770,  was  eight  years  younger 
than  Fichte,  and  five  years  older  than  Schelling.  He,  too, 
graduated  from  the  fountain-head  of  Romantic  philosophy, 
Jena,  where  he  taught  from  1801  to  1806.  In  1807,  his 
first  notable  work  was  published,  Die  Phdnomenologie  des 
Geistes,  in  which  his  soaring  idealism  stood  out  in  sharp 
contrast  to  the  philosophy  of  Schelling.  His  work  on  Logik 
appeared  between  1812  and  1 8 1 6,  the  Philosophic  des  Rechts^ 

1  Werke,  18  vols.,  1834-45  ;  vol.  19  (Leipzig,  1887)  contains  his  letters.  Cp. 
R.  Haym,  Hegel  und  seine  Zeit,  Berlin,  1857,  and  K.  Fischer,  Hegel*  Leben, 
Werke  und  Lekre.  Heidelberg,  1900-01. 


CHAP.  V.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  477 

in  1820.     In   1816,  he  received  a  call  to  the  University  of 
Heidelberg,  in  1818,  to  Berlin,  where  he  died  in  1831. 

To  no  other  thinker  did  the  nineteenth  century  owe  so 
many  new  thoughts  as  to  Hegel ;  no  philosopher  left  his 
mark  upon  his  age,  or  rather  upon  the  age  that  succeeded 
him — for  Hegelianism  first  became  a  dominant  power  after 
the  Revolution  of  1830 — more  indelibly  than  he.  For  the 
greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  indeed,  his  system  was 
regarded  as  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  metaphysical  thinking,  a 
triumphant  conclusion  to  the  idealistic  philosophy  inaugurated 
by  Kant.  In  his  method  and  in  his  application  of  the  idea  of 
historical  evolution,  Hegel  set  out  from  a  Romantic  basis ; 
Romantic,  too,  was  his  extraordinarily  subtle  idealism  before 
which  the  boundaries  even  of  mind  and  matter  disappeared. 
But,  in  place  of  Schelling's  "  nature,"  Hegel  set  "  spirit," 
and  the  individual,  so  important  a  factor  in  all  purely 
Romantic  speculation,  was  made  subordinate  to  a  collec- 
tive and  historical  conception  of  race.  In  theory,  Hegel's 
philosophy  was  magnificent ;  where,  for  instance,  it  laid 
down  a  basis  for  the  philosophy  of  history,  its  influence  was 
enormous  and  immediate ;  by  one  flash  of  his  genius,  Hegel 
called  a  new  science  into  existence.  But  in  politics,  in 
practical  ethics,  it  stood  behind  Fichte's  glowing  individualism; 
in  religious  inspiration  behind  Schleiermacher's  spirituality ;  to 
art  and  poetry  it  brought  none  of  that  health  and  vigour  which 
the  nature-philosophy  of  Schelling  was  able  to  communicate, 
and  consequently,  as  far  as  literature  was  concerned,  the  era 
of  Hegelian  ascendancy  was  a  barren  one. 

Hegel's  successor  in  the  intellectual  evolution  of  the  cen-  Arthur 
tury  was   Schopenhauer ;    under  the  aegis  of  Schopenhauer's  ^Cy°pen" 
philosophy,   as  we  shall   see  in   a  later  chapter,   began   the  1788-1860. 
philosophic   and   literary   revolt   against    Hegelianism.       But 
just  as  Hegel's  influence  first  became  a  power  in  the  age  after 
he  was  dead,  so  Schopenhauer  was  an  old  man  before  he  was 
accepted   as    a   philosopher   at  all.      Arthur  Schopenhauer,1 
whose  mother,  Johanna  Schopenhauer  (1766-1838),  belonged 
to   the  literary   society   of  Weimar  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  was  born  in  Danzig  in   1788,  and  died  in  Frankfort, 

1  Sdmmtliche  \Verke,  ed.  E.  Grisebach,  6  vols.,  also  Nachlass,  4  vols.  ^  Brief e, 
2  vols.  (all  in  Reclam's  Universalbibliothek),  Leipzig,  1891-95.  Cp.  E.  Grise- 
bach, A.  Schopenhauer,  Geschichte  seines  Lebens,  Berlin,  1897,  and  J.  Volkelt, 
A.  Schopenhauer,  Stuttgart,  1900. 


478  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

which  was  his  home  for  more  than  half  his  life,  in  1860. 
His  chief  work,  Die  Welt  als  Wille  und  Vorstellung,  appeared 
as  early  as  1819,  but  he  had  to  wait  nearly  forty  years  before 
his  philosophy  received  the  recognition  it  deserved ;  indeed, 
general  attention  was  not  drawn  to  Schopenhauer,  until,  in 
1851,  he  published  a  collection  of  essays  under  the  title 
Parerga  und  Paralipomena. 

Schopenhauer  was  what  no  German  thinker  had  been 
before  him,  a  master'  of  style ;  he  is  one  of  the  most  eminent 
prose  writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  century.  In  the  cast 
of  his  mind,  he  showed  many  points  of  similarity  with  Novalis 
and  Friedrich  Schlegel,  and  his  philosophy,  too,  was  an  un- 
mistakable product  of  the  "  Romantik " ;  compared  with 
Hegelianism,  Schopenhauer's  doctrines  were  virtually  a  return 
to  the  ideas  from  which  the  Romantic  School  set  out.  The 
fundamental  principle  of  his  philosophy  is  that  the  visible 
world  is  only  "  Vorstellung,"  a  figment  of  the  brain,  and  the 
only  entity,  the  real  world,  is  the  will,  that  is  to  say,  the  active 
principle  which  manifests  itself  in  the  universe  and  reaches  its 
highest  development  in  man.  But  the  will  is  incited  to 
action  by  a  sense  of  deficiency,  in  other  words,  by  suffering ; 
and  existence  resolves  itself  into  a  perpetual  struggle  against 
pain.  Even  if  we  attain  the  objects  we  strive  after,  the 
consequence  is  a  feeling  of  satiety,  of  ennui,  which  is  as 
undesirable  as  the  suffering  that  prompted  our  actions.  Thus 
the  only  complete  solution  to  the  problem  of  life  is  the 
abandonment  of  the  "  will  to  live  "  ;  the  alternative  before  us 
is  suffering  or  non-existence. 

"Aber  Das,"  so  Schopenhauer  closes  his  Welt  als  Wille  und 
Vorstellung,  "was  sich  gegen  dieses  Zerfliessen  in's  Nichts  straubt, 
unsere  Natur,  1st  ja  eben  nur  der  Wille  zum  Leben,  der  wir 
selbst  sind,  wie  er  unsere  Welt  ist.  .  .  .  Wenden  wir  aber  den 
Blick  von  unserer  eigenen  Diirftigkeit  und  Befangenheit  auf  die- 
jenigen,  welche  die  Welt  iiberwanden,  in  denen  der  Wille,  zur 
vollen  Selbsterkenntniss  gelangt,  sich  in  Allem  wiederfand  und 
dann  sich  selbst  frei  verneinte,  und  welche  dann  nur  noch  seine 
letzte  Spur,  mit  dem  Leibe,  den  sie  belebt,  verschwinden  zu  sehen 
abwarten ;  so  zeigt  sich  .uns,  statt  des  rastlosen  Dranges  und 
Treibens,  statt  des  steten  Uberganges  von  Wunsch  zu  Furcht  und 
von  Freude  zu  Leid,  statt  der  nie  befriedigten  und  nie  ersterbenden 
Hoffnung,  daraus  der  Lebenstraum  des  wollenden  Menschen 
besteht,  jener  Friede,  der  hoher  ist  als  alle  Vernunft,  jene  ga'nz- 
liche  Meeresstille  des  Gemiiths,  jene  tiefe  Ruhe,  unerschiitterliche 


CHAP.  V.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  479 

Zuversicht  und  Heiterkeit,  deren  blosser  Abglanz  im  Antlitz,  wie 
ihn  Rafael  und  Coreggio  dargestellt  haben,  ein  ganzes  und  sicheres 
Evangelium  1st :  nur  die  Erkenntniss  1st  geblieben,  der  Wille  1st 
verschvvunden.  .  .  .  Diese  Betrachtung  ist  die  einzige,  welche  uns 
dauernd  trosten  kann,  wann  wir  einerseits  unheilbares  Leiden  und 
endlosen  Jammer  als  der  Erscheinung  des  Willens,  der  Welt, 
wesentlich  erkannt  haben,  und  andererseits,  bei  aufgehobenem 
Willen,  die  Welt  zerfliessen  sehen  und  nur  das  leere  Nichts  vor 
uns  behalten."1 

Such  is  the  spirit  of  Schopenhauer's  pessimism  ;  it  not  only 
denies  the  validity  of  Hegel's  conception  of  society  as  a 
historical  growth,  but  also  excludes  all  hope  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  race ;  it  is  a  pessimism  which  culminates  in  the 
negation  of  the  will  and  the  cessation  of  existence.  And  yet, 
negative  as  this  philosophy  was,  it  freed  German  intellectual 
life  from  the  meaningless  juggling  with  words,  into  which 
Hegelianism  ultimately  degenerated,  and,  as  we  shall  see  in 
a  subsequent  chapter,  reawakened  literature  to  earnest  aims 
when  once  the  storms  of  1848  were  past. 

1  Werke,  i,  526. 


480 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE    DECAY    OF    ROMANTICISM. 

THE  foregoing  chapters  of  the  present  part  have  been  occupied 
with  Romanticism  as  a  steadily  growing  force  in  German 
literature :  we  have  followed  the  Romantic  literature  through 
the  three  stages  associated  with  Jena,  Heidelberg,  and  Berlin. 
It  has  now  to  be  studied  in  its  period  of  decay.  While  the 
work  of  Chamisso  and  Eichendorff,  if  not  of  Fouque,  was  still 
virtually  free  from  elements  that  could  be  called  decadent, 
the  writers  who  have  to  be  considered  in  the  present  chapter 
represent  either  the  disintegration  of  the  Romantic  idea  owing 
to  an  extravagant  abuse  of  supernatural  motives,  or  else  they 
exemplify  how  Romanticism,  as  it  ceased  to  be  a  vital  force, 
assumed  new  forms  and  adapted  itself  to  other  ends. 

Beyond  question  the  most  brilliantly  endowed  of  the  later 
E.  T.  A.  Romanticists  was  Ernst  Theodor  Wilhelm  Hoffmann1 — he 
1776^822"'  himself  adopted  the  name  Amadaus,  instead  of  Wilhelm,  in 
honour  of  Mozart.  Hoffmann  was  born  in  Konigsberg  on 
January  24,  1776.  As  a  child  he  was  extraordinarily  pre- 
cocious, and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  matriculated  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Konigsberg.  Law  was  his  chosen  profession,  and 
in  1796,  he  received  an  appointment  first  at  Glogau,  then  in 
Berlin,  and  finally,  in  1800,  in  Posen.  In  Posen,  however, 
his  dangerous  talent  for  caricature  made  him  enemies,  and,  as 
the  consequence  of  a  jest  during  the  carnival,  he  was  sent 
to  Plozk,  a  small  town  on  the  Vistula.  Being  subsequently 
allowed  to  exchange  Plozk  for  Warsaw,  he  made  here  the 
acquaintance  of  Zacharias  Werner,  whose  nature  was  in  some 

1  The  most  complete  edition  of  Hoffmann's  works  is  that  edited  by  E.  Grise- 
bach,  15  vols.,  Leipzig,  1900.  Cp.  G.  Ellinger,  E.  T.  A.  Hoffmann,  sein  Leben 
und  seine  Werke,  Hamburg,  1894,  and  M.  Koch,  E.  K.  F.  Schulze  und  E.  T. 
W.  Hoffmann  (D.N.L.,  147  [1889]),  119  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  481 

respects  similar  to  his  own.  During  these  years,  music  was 
Hoffmann's  chief  amusement,  and  when  the  French  occupied 
Warsaw  in  1806  and  deprived  him  of  his  government  position, 
he  turned  to  it  as  a  profession.  After  months  of  destitution,  he 
obtained  an  appointment  as  musical  director  of  the  theatre  at 
Bamberg,  where,  in  spite  of  financial  difficulties,  he  remained 
for  about  five  years :  he  then  joined,  in  a  similar  capacity,  a 
travelling  company  of  players,  who  had  their  headquarters  at 
Dresden.  During  this  period,  Hoffmann  composed  several 
operas,  a  symphony,  a  Mass,  besides  lesser  works,  and,  what 
was  more  important,  turned  in  earnest  to  literature,  as  a 
means  of  eking  out  his  income.  His  first  book  was  the  Phantasie- 
Phantasiestiicke  in  Callots  Manier  (4  vols.,  1814-11;),  the  s!?c,k.e"1 

•"  Callots 

Callot  here  imitated  being  a  French  artist  of  the  beginning  Manier, 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  whose  grotesque  style  appealed  l8l4- 
strongly  to  Hoffmann.  This  collection  of  fantastic  stories 
and  essays,  to  which  Jean  Paul  wrote  the  preface,  made 
Hoffmann's  reputation.  Besides  the  admirable  story  of  Der 
goldne  Topf,  the  most  noteworthy  contents  are  the  Kreis- 
leriana^  musical  opinions  placed  in  the  mouth  of  Johann 
Kreisler,  who  was  evidently  suggested  by  the  musician  in 
Wackenroder's  Herzcnsergiessungen.  Kapellmeister  Kreisler, 
in  whom  art  and  life  are  blended  in  a  characteristically 
Romantic  manner,  is  Hoffmann's  musical  self: — 

"  Wo  ist  er  her  ? — Niemand  weiss  es  ! — Wer  waren  seine  Eltern  ? 
— Es  ist  unbekannt  ! — Wessen  Schiiler  ist  er?  —  Eines  guten 
Meisters,  denn  er  spielt  vortrefflich,  und  da  er  Verstand  und 
Bildung  hat,  kann  man  ihn  wohl  dulden,  ja  ihm  sogar  den  Unter- 
richt  in  der  Musik  verstatten.  .  .  .  Die  Freunde  behaupteten  : 
die  Natur  habe  bei  seiner  Organisation  ein  neues  Rezept  versucht 
und  der  Versuch  sei  misslungen,  indem  seinem  iiberreizbaren 
Gemiithe,  seiner  bis  zur  zerstorenden  Flamme  aufgliihenden  Phan- 
tasie zu  wenig  Phlegma  beigemischt  und  so  das  Gleichgewicht 
zerstort  worden,  das  dem  Kiinstler  durchaus  nothig  sei,  um  mit 
der  Welt  zu  leben  und  ihr  Werke  zu  dichten,  wie  sie  dieselben, 
selbst  im  hohern  Sinn,  eigentlich  brauche." x 

In  1814,  Hoffmann  obtained  a  fixed  position  in  connection   Hoffmann 
with  the  Kammergericht  in  Berlin,  and  from   this  time  on,   m  Berlm- 
Berlin  remained  his   home.     He  soon  formed  warm  friend- 
ships  with   the   Romantic  writers   of  the   capital,    especially 
with   Fouque  and  Chamisso,   and   they   met  regularly,   once 

1  E.  Grisebach's  edition,  i,  21. 
2   H 


482 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Die 

Elixiere 
des  Tevfels, 
1815. 


Nacht- 
stiicke, 
1817. 


Klein 

Zaches, 

1819. 


Die 

Serapions- 
brudtr, 
1819-31. 


every  week,  as  the  "  Serapionsbriider,"  to  discuss  art  and 
literature.  Unfortunately,  in  Hoffmann's  case,  these  even- 
ings were  followed  by  nights  of  hard  drinking,  when  he 
squandered,  in  company  unworthy  of  him,  his  brilliant  wit 
and  imagination.  The  wild  and  unbalanced  life  he  led  could 
not  last ;  he  became  the  victim  of  spinal  disease,  and  died  in 
1822,  at  the  age  of  forty-six. 

Die  Elixiere  des  Teufels  (1815),  the  most  skilfully  con- 
structed of  Hoffmann's  longer  works,  might  be  described  as 
an  attempt  to  adapt  the  Gothic  "  tale  of  terror "  to  the  Ro- 
mantic novel ;  the  subject,  indeed,  was  possibly  suggested  to 
Hoffmann  by  Lewis's  Monk.  The  supernatural  paraphernalia 
of  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  romance,  as  it  reappeared  in 
the  "  Schicksalsdrama,"  is  retained,  but  Hoffmann  had  also 
at  his  command  the  refined  art  and  poetic  "  Stimmungs- 
malerei "  of  the  Romanticists ;  and  by  means  of  hints  and 
ingenious  insinuations,  he  is  able  to  awaken  a  shudder  even 
in  a  sceptical  reader.  It  is,  none  the  less,  detrimental  to  the 
story  that  it  was  not  written  with  more  restraint,  kept  more 
within  the  bounds  of  the  probable ;  for  the  psychological 
development  of  the  Capuchin  monk,  led  astray  by  tasting  the 
"  devil's  elixir,"  and  ultimately  brought  to  his  knees  in  contrite 
repentance,  is  more  interesting  than  are  the  adventures  he 
goes  through.  In  several  of  the  Nachtstiicke  (1817),  such  as 
Der  Sandmann  and  Ignaz  Denner,  Hoffmann's  fondness  for 
the  supernatural  is  carried  still  further.  In  the  first  of  these, 
for  instance,  the  hero  lives  in  a  nightmare  of  morbid  fancies, 
loves  an  automaton  —  automata  and  "  Doppelgiinger  "  were 
idtes  fixes  in  Hoffmann's  imagination — and  ends  his  life  as 
a  madman.  In  Das  Majorat,  the  best  Novelle  of  this  collec- 
tion, however,  the  gruesome  elements  are  subordinated  to 
a  vivid  description  of  scenes  from  the  author's  early  life. 
Grotesque  and  morbid  to  the  last  degree  is  Klein  Zaches 
genannt  Zinnober  (1819),  the  history  of  an  "  Alraune,"  or  man- 
drake, a  weird  dwarf  of  German  folklore,  who  had  already 
appeared  in  Arnim's  story  of  Isabella  von  Agypten,  "  Klein 
Zaches "  possesses  the  power  of  winning  credit  for  the  good 
that  others  do,  and  of  making  innocent  people  responsible  for 
his  crimes  and  misdeeds. 

The  fairest  estimate  of  Hoffmann's  genius  is  to  be  obtained 
from  the  four  volumes  of  Die  Serapionsbriider  (1819-21),  a 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  483 

collection  of  stories,  loosely  connected,  like  those  which  form 
Tieck's  Phantasus,  by  the  conversations  of  the  friends  who 
tell  them.  An  admirable  character-study  is  that  of  Rath 
Krespel,  with  which  Die  Serapionsbriider  opens,  and  into  Die 
Fermate  the  author  skilfully  weaves  reminiscences  of  his  own 
youth.  Masterpieces  of  their  kind  are  Der  Artushof,  a  ^tory 
of  artist-life  in  Danzig,  Doge  und  Dogaressa,  of  which  Marino 
Falieri  is  the  chief  figure,  a  fine  romance  of  old  Niirnberg, 
Meister  Martin  der  Kiifner  und  seine  Gesellen,  and,  in  the  third 
volume  of  the  Serapionsbriider^  Das  Frdulein  von  Scuderi,  the 
most  perfect  story  Hoffmann  ever  wrote.  In  these  "  Novellen  " 
he  cannot,  it  is  true,  altogether  conceal  his  love  for  the  "  night 
side"  of  life,  but  it  no  longer  plays  so  important  a  part  as 
in  Die  Elixiere  des  Teufels  and  the  Nachtstikke.  This  is 
also  characteristic  of  Hoffmann's  Lebens-Ansichten  des  Katers  Kater 
Murr  nebst  fragmentarischer  Biographie  des  Kapellmeisters  M£rr> 
Johannes  Kreisler  in  zufdlligen  Maknlaturbldttern.  A  romance 
more  fantastically  planned  than  this  could  not  be  imagined  : 
a  cat  is  supposed  to  write  its  memoirs  on  the  proofs  of 
Kreisler's  biography,  and  the  sheets  are  printed  and  bound 
together  by  mistake.  Even  Jean  Paul  hardly  ever  carried  his 
humour  to  such  extremes.  The  contents  of  the  book,  too,  are 
extraordinarily  confused ;  the  cat  is  the  "  Philister,"  Kreissler 
the  idealist  and  artist,  and  the  whole  is  held  together  by  a 
romantic  love-story  of  which  Kreissler  is  hero.  The  chief 
features  of  Kater  Murr  are,  however,  its  humorous  irony  and 
satire.  Two  volumes  appeared  in  1821  and  1822,  but 
Hoffmann  did  not  live  to  complete  it.  Among  his  last 
writings  were  the  "  Novellen,"  Meister  Johannes  Wacht  and 
Der  Feind,  the  latter  unfinished,  and  the  admirable  dialogue, 
Des  Vettcrs  Eckfenster. 

Hoffmann  is  one  of  the  masters  of  German  prose  literature, 
and  of  all  the  Romantic  novelists  he  exerted  the  widest  and 
most  abiding  influence.  His  writing  is,  in  a  high  degree, 
plastic,  a  quality  which  is  conspicuous  in  his  power  of  en- 
dowing with  reality  the  supernatural  phantasms  of  his  brain ; 
"le  poete,"  as  Balzac  said  of  him,  "de  ce  qui  n'a  pas  1'air 
d'exister,  et  qui  neanmoins  a  vie,"  l  he  made  his  imagined 
world  more  real  than  many  of  his  contemporaries  were  able 
to  make  the  life  around  them ;  and  behind  his  creations,  how- 

1  Unefille  (TEve,  6  (La  Comtdie  humaine,  Paris,  1842,  2,  200). 


484 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Ludwig 

Tieck, 

I773-I853- 


Der 

A  ufruhr 

in  den 

Cevennen, 

1826. 


ever  m»rbid  they  may  be,  is  always  to  be  found  the  German 
idealist  and  Romanticist.  But  the  age  and  his  own  unbalanced 
character  were  against  him ;  the  stamp  of  decadence  lay  upon 
his  art  as  upon  his  life.  German  music,  however,  and  notably 
that  kindred  genius,  Robert  Schumann  (1810-56),  was  deeply 
indebted  to  him,  and,  in  France,  his  work  was  a  weightier 
factor  than  that  of  either  Goethe  or  Schiller. 

To  the  same  period  as  Hoffmann  belongs  also  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  first  Romantic  School,  Ludwig  Tieck,  who, 
in  1819,  settled  in  Dresden,  and  in  1821  turned  once  more  to 
fiction.  His  many  "  Novellen," l  which  were  all  published 
about  this  time,  are  occasionally  marred  by  being  written  with 
a  purpose  ;  but  the  solidity  of  their  workmanship  distinguishes 
them  favourably  from  other  stories  of  the  age,  and  even 
from  Tieck's  own  earlier  work.  Die  Gemdlde  (1822),  Die 
Verlobung  (1823),  and  Des  Lebens  fiberfluss  (1839)  are  among 
the  most  effective  of  the  collection ;  and  Der  Mondsiichtige 
(1831)  shows  that,  in  spite  of  the  cooler  irony  of  advancing 
years,  Tieck  was  able  to  recall  the  Romantic  enthusiasm  of 
his  youth.  Dichterleben  (1825)  and  Der  Tod  des  Dichters 
(1833)  are  founded  respectively  on  episodes  in  the  lives  of 
Shakespeare  and  Camoens,  while  Der  junge  Tischlermeister 
(1836)  is  a  romance  on  the  accepted  Romantic  model,  and 
owes  much  to  Wilhelm  Meister.  Most  important  of  all  is  the 
fragment  of  a  historical  novel,  Der  Aufruhr  in  den  Cevennen 
(1826),  which  has,  not  unjustly,  been  placed  beside  Heinrich 
von  Ofterdingen  and  Die  Kronenwdchter  as  one  of  the  typical 
examples  of  Romantic  fiction ;  Tieck — as  is  also  to  be  seen 
in  a  later  book,  Vittoria  Accorombona  (1840) — had  an  un- 
developed talent  for  the  historical  novel.  As  dramaturge, 
from  1825  onwards,  of  the  Court  Theatre  in  Dresden,  he 
infused  into  the  performances  of  the  German  stage  an  ear- 
nest, artistic  spirit,  the  effects  of  which  may  be  traced  in 
the  experiments  which  Immermann  made  some  years  after- 
wards at  Diisseldorf.  In  1841,  Tieck  received  an  invitation 
from  Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.  to  make  Berlin  his  home;  and 
here  he  died  in  1853. 

A  writer  in  the  age  of  Romantic  decay,  whose  position 
was  solitary  and  in  many  respects  anomalous,  is  Ernst  Konrad 

1  Gesammelte  Novellen,  14  vpls.,  Breslau,  1835-42.     On  this  period  of  Tieck's 
life,  cp.  H.  von  Friesen,  /,.   Tieck,  2  vols.,  Vienna,  1871. 


CHAP.  Vl.l          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  485 

Fnedrich  Schulze  (1789-181 7).*  Schulze's  temperament  orig-  E.  K.  F. 
inally  bore  some  resemblance  to  Wieland's,  but  his  life  having  ^g  ^ 
been  imbittered  by  the  death  of  a  woman  for  whom  he  had 
a  passionate,  almost  morbid  affection,  he  found  the  spirituality 
of  the  Romanticists  more  in  harmony  with  his  feelings  than 
Wieland's  light  frivolity.  His  two  epics,  Cdcilie  (1818) — the 
fulfilment  of  a  vow  to  erect  a  monument  to  his  lost  love 
— and  Die  bezauberte  Rose  (1818),  are  essentially  Romantic 
poems,  but  Schulze  is  Romantic  in  an  old-world  way  that 
reminds  the  reader  of  the  epics  of  Ariosto :  his  poetry  has 
an  archaic  colouring  which  is  obviously  artificial,  the  unreality 
being  further  heightened  by  the  allegorical  form  he  chose 
to  give  his  work.  With  the  exception  of  Brentano  in  his 
Erfindung  des  Rosenkranzes,  Schulze  was  the  only  German 
poet  of  eminence  at  this  time  who  wrote  epics.  For  the 
great  epics  of  Romanticism  we  must  look  not  to  German, 
but  to  the  Slavonic  poets,  Mickiewicz  and  Puschkin. 

An  interesting  phase  of  Romanticism  is  to  be  seen  in  the 
work  of  Friedrich  Riickert,2  who  was  born  at  Schweinfurt  in  Friedrich 
1788.  Riickert  has  already  been  mentioned  as  a  singer  of 
the  War  of  Liberation.  His  Geharnischte  Sonette  (1814), 
although  written  in  1812,  were  published  too  late  to  have 
helped  to  kindle  the  revolt  against  Napoleon,  and  even  had  they 
appeared  in  time,  their  author  had  not  the  power,  possessed 
by  lesser  poets  like  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  of  expressing 
his  patriotic  sentiments  in  a  way  that  appealed  immediately 
to  all  classes :  moreover,  of  all  lyric  forms  the  sonnet  is 
least  adapted  for  this  purpose.  As  his  patriotism  began  to 
cool,  Riickert  returned  to  the  Romantic  world,  from  which 
the  war  had  rudely  torn  him,  and  where  he  was  unques- 
tionably most  at  home.  In  1817,  he  visited  Italy,  and 
found  that  his  fame  had  preceded  him  among  the  German 
poets  and  artists  resident  in  Rome :  in  the  following  year, 
he  was  in  Vienna,  zealously  engaged  in  studying  oriental 
literatures,  his  guide  being  the  same  Joseph  von  Hammer- 
Purgstall,  who  had  awakened  Goethe's  interest  in  Hafiz,  and 
revealed  to  a  generation  of  Austrian  poets  the  poetic  wealth 
of  the  East.  Three  years  later,  Riickert  settled  in  Coburg; 

1  Poetische   Werke,  3rd  ed.,  5  vols.,  Leipzig,  1855;  selections  edited  by  M. 
Koch,  in  D.N.L.,  147  [1889],  i  ff. 

2  Editions  of  Riickert's  works  by  L.  Laistner,  6  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1896,  and 
C.  Beyer,  6  vols. ,  Leipzig,  1900. 


486 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Oriental 
poetry. 


Die  Weis- 
heit  des 
Brah- 
manen, 
1836-39. 


Lyric 
poetry 


in  1826,  he  was  appointed  to  a  professorship  in  Erlangen, 
which,  in  1841,  he  exchanged  for  one  in  Berlin.  The  Prussian 
capital,  however,  was  little  to  his  taste,  and  he  retired  not 
long  afterwards  to  his  country  house  near  Coburg,  where  he 
died  in  1866. 

Riickert  rendered  valuable  services  to  German  literature  as 
an  interpreter  of  oriental  life  and  poetry.  In  Ostliche  Rosen 
(1822),  he  took,  for  instance,  Hafiz  as  his  model,  and  this 
work  was  followed,  four  years  later,  by  a  translation  in  verse 
and  rhymed  prose  of  the  Makamen  of  Hariri,  the  merry  ad- 
ventures of  an  Arabian  rogue.  He  also  published  versions  of 
the  Sanskrit  Nal  und  Damajanti  (1828),  of  the  Chinese  Schi- 
King  (1833),  and  the  Persian  Rostem  und  Suhrab  (1838), 
besides  a  poetic  Gospel-Harmony,  Das  Leben  Jesu  (1839), 
and  a  collection  of  the  oldest  Arabian  Volkslieder,  the 
Hamasa  (1846).  The  most  ambitious  of  his  works  is  Die 
Weisheit  des  Brahmanen,  a  long  didactic  poem,  or  rather 
collection  of  verse  and  aphorisms,  which  appeared  between 
1836  and  1839  in  six  volumes;  and  even  this  list  does  not 
exhaust  his  labours,  several  of  his  translations  not  having  been 
published  until  after  his  death.  The  passive  atmosphere  of 
oriental  literature  appealed  strongly  to  Riickert's  temperament, 
but  his  ability  as  a  translator  depended  even  to  a  greater 
extent  upon  his  mastery  of  language  and  verse  :  in  this  respect, 
he  is  second  only  to  Platen  among  modern  German  poets,  and 
indeed,  of  Riickert's  many  followers,  Platen — he  wrote  Ghaselen 
in  1824 — takes  the  first  place.  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
century,  Leopold  Schefer  (1784-1862)  and  G.  F.  Daumer 
(1800-75)  imitated  Hafiz,  and  in  1851,  Friedrich  Bodenstedt 
published  his  Lieder  des  Mirza  Schaffy^  to  which  we  shall 
return  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

As  an  original  poet,  Riickert  owed  his  reputation  to  the 
collection  of  lyrics  called  Liebesfriihling  (1823),  and  the 
Haus-  und  Jahreslieder,  written  between  1832  and  1838. 
The  Kindertodtenlieder  (1834),  on  the  death  of  two  of  his 
children,  are  pathetic,  but  somewhat  diffuse  ;  his  plays,  Saul 
und  David  (1844)  and  Kaiser  Heinrich  IV.  (1844),  have 
few  dramatic  qualities,  and  had  no  success  on  the  stage. 
But  his  early  lyrics  are  of  the  true  Romantic  type ;  without 
being  so  naively  popular  as  Wilhelm  Miiller,  Riickert  some- 
times wrote  verses  that  were  as  harmonious  as  Eichendorff  s. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  487 

He  was  never  a  greater  poet  than  when  he  sang  in  the  simple 
tone  of  the  Volkslied  : — 

"  O  siisse  Mutter, 
Ich  kann  nicht  spinnen, 
Ich  kann  nicht  sitzeu 
Im  Stiiblein  innen 
Im  engen  Haus ; 
Es  stockt  das  Radchen, 
Es  reisst  das  Fadchen, 
O  siisse  Mutter, 
Ich  muss  hinaus."1 

In  a  love-song  like  the  following,  beautiful  as  it  is,  the  sincerity 
of  feeling  is  veiled  by  an  exaggerated  oriental  imagery  which, 
as  we  shall  afterwards  see,  reappeared  in  Heine's  poetry  : — 

"  Du  meine  Seele,  du  mein  Herz, 
Du  meine  Wonn',  o  du  mein  Schmerz, 
Du  meine  Welt,  in  der  ich  lebe, 
Mein  Himmel  du,  darein  ich  schwebe, 
O  du  mein  Grab,  in  das  hinab 
Ich  ewig  meinen  Kummer  gab  ! 
Du  bist  die  Ruh',  du  bist  der  Frieden, 
Du  bist  der  Himmel  mir  beschieden. 
Dass  du  mich  liebst,  macht  mich  mir  werth, 
Dein  Blick  hat  mich  vor  mir  verklart, 
Du  hebst  mich  liebend  iiber  mich, 
Mein  guter  Geist,  mein  bessres  Ich  ! 2 

More  incongruous  elements  in  Riickert's  songs  are  an  affected 
subtlety  of  expression  and  a  love  of  quaint  antitheses,  which 
he  had  also  learned  from  his  oriental  models.  He  wrote  with 
the  ease  and  fluency  of  a  Persian  poet ;  he  had  nothing  of  the 
self-concentration  which  made  Eichendorff  and  Heine  poets 
of  the  first  rank,  and  many  even  of  his  finest  poems  are 
marred  by  diffuseness  and  want  of  form.  What,  however,  was 
chiefly  missing  in  Riickert's  work  was  a  strong  personal  note ; 
his  nature  was  almost  exclusively  receptive.  Thus,  he  is  at 
his  best  when  his  imagination  is  held  in  check  by  the  necessity 
of  reproducing  what  others  have  expressed;  as  a  mediator 
between  Germany  and  the  East,  he  cannot  be  too  highly 
estimated.  He  came,  it  is  true,  too  late  to  be  a  pioneer,  but  it 
was  he  who  first  gave  tangible  form  to  what  Friedrich  Schlegel 
had  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote  his  Weisheit  der  Inder.  Goethe, 
recognising  this,  hailed  Riickert  as  a  worthy  fellow-worker  in 

1  C.  Beyer's  edition,  a,  33.  2  Ibid.,  i,  302  f. 


488 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Poetry  of 
the  Greek 
Revolt. 


Wilhelm 

Miiller, 

1794-1827. 


helping  to  bring  about  that  era  of  "  Weltlitteratur,"  which  was 
one  of  the  old  poet's  cherished  ideals. 

The  lyrics  of  several  young  writers,  whose  sympathies 
were  with  the  Greeks  in  their  struggle  for  independence, 
can  with  less  justification  be  included  under  the  heading  of 
"Romantic  Decay";1  the  poetry  of  the  Greek  Revolt  formed 
a  transition  from  Romanticism  to  the  political  lyric  of  "  Jung- 
Deutschland"  and  the  Revolution  of  1848.  Of  the  poets 
who,  as  admirers  and  imitators  of  Byron,  took  part  in  the 
political  movement,  the  ablest  was  Wilhelm  Miiller,2  a  native 
of  Dessau,  who  was  born  in  1794  and  died  in  1827. 
Miiller's  Lieder  der  Griechen  (1821-24)  were  Germany's  chief 
contribution  to  the  literature  inspired  by  the  Greek  struggle. 
But  the  sentimental  patriotism  of  these  songs  does  more 
honour  to  the  singer's  enthusiasm  than  to  his  poetic 
genius,  and  the  long  trochaic  and  iambic  lines  in  which  he 
wrote  are  monotonous  to  a  modern  ear  accustomed  to 
more  subtle  rhythms.  Apart  from  his  Greek  songs,  Miiller 
is  a  master  of  the  popular  lyric ;  in  a  higher  degree  than 
any  other  Romantic  singer,  even  Chamisso,  to  whom  he 
bears  some  resemblance,  he  is  the  poet  of  the  German  Volk. 
His  love-poetry — the  cycle  of  songs,  Die  schone  Miillerin, 
for  example,  which  the  music  of  Franz  Schubert  (1797- 
1828)  has  made  universally  known  —  has  nothing  in  it  of 
the  subtle  suggestiveness  of  Goethe  or  Eichendorff,  nor  does 
it,  on  the  other  hand,  fall  into  the  occasionally  false  senti- 
mentality of  Chamisso ;  the  Volkslied  itself  is  not  more 
simple  and  direct.  To  see  Miiller's  art  to  full  advantage 
we  must  turn  to  a  song  like — 

"  Wer  schlagt  so  rasch  an  die  Fenster  mir 
Mit  schwanken  griinen  Zweigen  ? 
Der  junge  Morgenwind  ist  hier 
Und  will  sich  lustig  zeigen. 

'  Heraus,  heraus,  du  Menschensohn  ! ' 
So  ruft  der  kecke  Geselle, 
'  Es  schwarmt  von  Friihlingswonnen  schon 
Vor  deiner  Kammerschwelle. 


1  Cp.  R.  F.  Arnold,  Der  deutsche  Philhellenismus  in  Euphorion  (Erganzungs- 
heft,  2),  1896. 

2  Gedichte,  edited  by  C.  Miiller  (Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  3261-3264), 
Leipzig,  1894.     Cp.  F.  Max-Muller  (his  son)  in  the  Allg.  deutsche  Biographic 
22  (1885),  683  ff. 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  489 

'  Horst  du  die  Kafer  summen  nicht? 
Horst  du  das  Glas  nicht  klirren, 
Wenn  sie,  betaubt  von  Duft  und  Licht, 
Hart  an  die  Scheiben  schwirren  ? ' " 1 

The  first  collection  of  Miiller's  songs,  Gedichte  aus  den  hinter- 
lassenen  Papieren  eines  reisenden  IValdhornisten,  was  published 
in  1821,  a  second  volume  appearing  in  1824.  After  the 
Schone  Miillerin,  the  lyrics  most  characteristic  of  the  poet's 
genius  are  the  Reiselieder — for  Miiller,  like  all  the  poets  of 
the  time,  loved  a  "  Wanderleben  " : — 

"  In  die  griine  Welt  hinein 
Zieh'  ich  mit  dem  Morgenschein, 
Abendlust  und  Abendleid 
Hinter  mir  so  weit,  so  weit  ! "  2 

But  Miiller  wrote  too  easily,  and  his  poetry  belongs,  in  its 
range  of  ideas,  to  an  age  of  na'ive  feeling  and  thinking.  Yet, 
of  all  his  contemporaries,  none  has  a  better  claim  than  he  to 
be  regarded  as  Heine's  forerunner ;  from  him,  Heine  learned 
the  beauty  that  lay  in  the  simplest  metres,  and  the  fine  cycles 
of  poems,  Muscheln  von  der  Insel  Rtigen  (1825)  and  Lieder 
aus  dem  Meerbusen  von  Salerno  (1827),  are  not  unworthy  of 
comparison  with  Heine's  lyrics  of  the  North  Sea. 

Among  the  other  "  Greek "  poets  at  this  time,  Chamisso's 
friend,  Franz  von  Gaudy  (1800-40), 3  deserves  mention.  F.  von 
Gaudy  was  a  voluminous  writer,  who,  in  his  frequently  trivial 
and  frivolous  verse,  imitated  Beranger  and  Heine.  His  prose 
sketches  and  "  Novellen "  have,  however,  a  more  lasting 
value  than  his  verse.  Chamisso  himself  was  also  carried  away 
by  sympathy  for  Greece,  and  poems  like  Lord  Byron's  letze 
Liebe  (1827),  and  the  cycle  Chios  (1829),  entitle  him  to  a 
place  among  the  members  of  this  group.  Julius  Mosen  J.  Mosen, 
(1803-67) 4  was  another  poet  who  combined  the  idealism  of  l8°3-67- 
the  "  Romantik  "  with  a  passionate  enthusiasm  for  Greece  and 
Poland ;  the  Greek  revolt  is  the  subject  of  his  novel,  Der 
Kongress  zu  Verona  (1842),  while  his  famous  ballad,  Die 
letzten  Zehn  vom  vierten  Regiment  (1832),  describes  an  episode 
in  Poland's  struggle  for  freedom.  Mosen's  epics  (AAasver, 
1838)  and  "Novellen"  (Bilder  im  Moose,  1 846)  appealed  to 

i  Morgenlied  (Gedichte,  180).  »  Gedichte,  46. 

3  A  selection  of  Gaudy's  works,  edited  by  K.  Siegen,  3  vols.,  Leipzig,  1896. 

4  Sammtliche  Werke,  6  vols.,  Leipzig,  1880. 


490  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

the  taste  of  the  time,  his  many  romantic  dramas  (Heinrich  der 
Finkler^  1836;  Cola  Rienzi,  1837;  Otto  III.,  1839)  had  a 
temporary  success,  while  his  work,  as  director  of  the  Ducal 
Theatre  in  Oldenburg,  was  of  real  importance  for  the  history 
of  the  German  stage.  The  most  eminent  German  poet 
who  sang  of  Poland  was  August  von  Platen,  whose  noble 
Polenlieder  (1830-31)  were  published  after  his  death,  but 
almost  all  the  younger  lyric  poets  of  the  time  gave  voice  to 
the  national  sympathy  with  the  Polish  cause. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

HISTORICAL    FICTION    AND    DRAMA. 
IMMERMANN    AND    PLATEN. 


ALTHOUGH  since  the  days  of  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  historical  The 
novels  had  formed  a  large  group  of  German  fiction,  their  hlstoricil1 
quality  had,  on  the  whole,  been  indifferent ;  the  isolated  ex- 
periments of  the  Romanticists,  such  as  Arnim's  Kronen- 
wachter,  stood  so  far  above  the  "  Ritterromane,"  and  had 
such  entirely  different  aims,  that  there  could  be  little  ques- 
tion of  mutual  influence.  In  point  of  fact,  historical  fiction 
first  asserted  itself  in  Germany,  under  the  vigorous  stimulus 
of  the  Waverley  Novels^  the  two  most  eminent  novelists  who 
looked  up  to  Scott  as  their  master  being  the  Swabian,  Wilhelm 
Hauff(i8o2-27),  and  the  North  German,  Wilhelm  H.  Haring, 
best  known  by  his  pseudonym,  "Willibald  Alexis"  (1798-1871). 

Although  Hauff1  died  in  1827,  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  w.  Hauff, 
he  left  a  large  number  of  admirable  stories ;  his  instinctive  l8°2'27- 
genius  for  fiction  and  his  attractive  style  concealed  the 
want  of  originality  and  independence,  natural  in  a  beginner. 
Lichtenstein  (1826),  a  story  of  Wiirtemberg  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  is,  although  closely  modelled  on 
Scott,  a  successful  imitation.  Mittheilungen  aus  den  Memoiren 
Satans  (1826-27)  shows  unmistakably  the  influence  of  Hoff- 
mann, while  in  Der  Mann  im  Monde  (1826),  Hauff  began  by 
intending  to  write  in  the  style  of  H.  Clauren  (an  anagram 
for  Carl  Heun,  1771-1854),  the  author  of  some  forty  volumes 
of  worthless  sentimental  fiction :  before,  however,  he  had 
proceeded  very  far,  he  changed  his  mind,  and  ingeniously  con- 
verted Der  Mann  im  Monde  into  a  satire  on  his  model.  Of 
Hauff 's  shorter  stories,  Das  Bild des  Kaisers  (1828)  is  the  most 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  ed.  H.  Fischer,  6  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1885,  and  F.  Bober- 
tag,  5  vols.  (D.N.L.,  156-158  [1891-92]). 


492 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


W.  H. 

Haring, 
("W. 
Alexis  " ), 
1798-1871. 


H.  Zschok- 
ke,  1771- 
1848. 


characteristic,  in  spite  of  its  frequent  concessions  to  the  taste  of 
the  time ;  but  his  masterpiece  is  undoubtedly  the  Phantasien 
im  Bremer  Rathskeller  (1827),  in  which  his  own  genius  is  once 
more  reinforced  by  what  he  had  learned  from  Hoffmann. 

The  ablest  German  writer  who  graduated  in  the  school  of 
Scott  was  Willibald  Alexis,  who  began  by  passing  off  imita- 
tions of  Scott  as  translations  (IValladmor,  1823-24;  Schloss 
Avalon,  1827).  In  1832,  Alexis  published  Cabanis,  an 
original  novel,  with  his  native  country,  the  Mark  of  Branden- 
burg, as  background,  and  Frederick  the  Great  as  central 
figure;  and,  during  the  next  twenty-five  years,  he  wrote 
many  volumes  of  historical  fiction,  besides  being  busily  en- 
gaged in  other  literary  work.  Alexis  did  not,  however,  live 
through  the  journalistic  epoch  of  German  literature — an  epoch 
to  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter — without  himself  taking 
on  some  of  its  colour,  without  being  influenced  by  the 
anti-Romantic  philosophy  of  "  Jungdeutschland  "  ;  and  two  of 
his  novels,  Das  Haus  Diisterweg  (1835)  and  Zwolf  Ndchte 
(1838),  have  all  the  features  of  "Young  German"  fiction. 
Even  the  six  historical  novels,1  upon  which  his  reputation 
now  rests,  are  not  altogether  free  from  the  spirit  of  that  epoch. 
Der  Roland  von  Berlin  (1840),  the  first  of  the  six,  depicts  the 
struggle  between  the  Hohenzollerns  and  the  burgher  classes  of 
Brandenburg  in  the  fifteenth  century ;  the  scene  of  Der  falsche 
Waldemar  (1842)  is  laid  a  century  earlier;  while  Die  Hosen 
des  Herrn  von  Bredow  (1846-48) — most  successful  of  all  Alexis' 
novels — is  a  romance  of  the  Reformation  period.  His  next 
book,  Ruhe  ist  die  erste  Btirgerpflicht  (1852),  is  an  admir- 
able story  of  the  Napoleonic  invasion  in  the  gloomy  days 
before  the  battle  of  Jena,  and  was  followed  by  Isegrimm 
(1852)  and  Dorothe  (1856),  neither  of  which,  however,  was  as 
popular  as  the  stories  that  preceded  them.  Of  all  the  con- 
tinental novelists  who  imitated  Scott,  Alexis  attained  the 
greatest  independence  of  his  master. 

While  even  the  name  of  another  fertile  writer  of  this  school, 
Karl  Spindler  (1796-1855),  the  author  of  Der  Jude  (1827), 
a  historical  novel  of  the  fifteenth  century,  is  long  since  for- 
gotten, the  novels  of  Heinrich  Zschokke  (1771-1848) 2  are  still 

1  Vaterlandische  Jfomane,  8  vols.,  Berlin,  1884. 

3  Ausgewahlte  Novellen  und  Dichtungen,  10  vols.,  nth  ed.,  Aarau,  1874. 
Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  Erxahlende  Prosa  der  klassischen  Periode.  2  (D.N.L..  137 
[1886]),  231  ff. 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  493 

popular.  A  native  of  Magdeburg,  Zschokke,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-five,  chose  Switzerland  as  his  home,  and,  for  the  rest 
of  his  life,  worked  untiringly,  both  as  a  writer  and  as  a  social 
and  political  reformer,  in  the  service  of  his  adopted  country. 
He  was  a  prolific  author,  his  works  ranging  from  history  to 
forestry,  from  prose  fiction  to  lyric  and  religious  poetry.  Before 
settling  in  Switzerland,  he  published  a  widely-read  bandit- 
novel,  Aballino,  der  grosse  Bandit  (1794),  in  which  the  ideas 
and  tendencies  of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  are  given  full 
rein.  But  his  best  stories  were  written  on  the  model  of  the 
Waverley  Novels  and  are  to  be  found  in  Bilder  aus  der  Schweiz 
(1824-26);  in  this  series  appeared  the  novels,  Addrich  im 
Moos  and  Der  Freihof  von  Aarau.  Another  widely-read  book 
by  Zschokke  is  Das  Goldmacherdorf  (1817),  an  imitation  of 
Pestalozzi's  educational  novel,  Lienhard  und  Gertrud ;  but 
popular  as  was  the  Goldmacherdorf,  it  never  became  such  a 
household  book  in  Switzerland  as  the  Stunden  der  Andacht 
(1809-16),  a  collection  of  devotional  poems  with  marked 
rationalistic  tendencies. 

The  drama,  or  at  least  the  North  German  drama, — for  it  was  The 
otherwise,  as  we  shall  see,  in  Austria, — had,  with  Kleist's  death,  drama- 
received  a  blow  from  which  it  did  not  soon  recover.  The 
Romanticists  tried  again  and  again  to  gain  a  footing  on  the 
stage,  but  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  outrivalled  by  worth- 
less competitors.  Thus  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  critics  and 
theorists  of  this  period — Tieck  in  his  Dramaturgische  Blatter 
(1825-26)  and  Immermann  in  the  Diisseldorfer  Anfdnge  (1840) 
— did  not  view  the  future  of  the  theatre  with  very  sanguine 
eyes.  Indeed,  between  Kleist  and  Friedrich  Hebbel,  North 
Germany  produced  only  one  dramatist  of  genius,  Christian  c.  D. 
Dietrich  Grabbe  (iSoi-36),1  and  he  was  too  romantically  un- 
balanced  easily  to  adapt  himself  to  the  requirements  of  the 
stage.  An  unruly  genius,  Grabbe  recalls  the  age  of  "Sturm 
und  Drang "  rather  than  that  of  Romantic  decay.  His  first 
play,  Herzog  Theodor  von  Gothland (1822),  begun  while  the 
author  was  still  at  school,  outdoes,  in  its  horrors,  the  most 
extravagant  productions  of  the  "  Geniezeit,"  but  Tieck,  whose 
opinion  Grabbe  sought,  was  not  blind  to  its  poetic  promise. 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  ed.  O.  Blumenthal,  4  vols.,  Detmold,  1874;  a  new 
edition  by  E.  Grisebach,  4  vols.,  Berlin,  1902.  Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  C.  D.  Grabbe, 
M.  Beer  und  E.  von  Schenk  (D.N.L.,  161  [1889]),  I  ff. 


494  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

A  literary  satire  published  in  the  same  year,  Scherz,  Satire, 
Ironic  und  tiefere  Bedeutung,  did  not  improve  Grabbe's  posi- 
tion or  his  prospects*  But  in  the  summer  of  1828,  he  put 
Don  Juan  the  finishing  strokes  to  Don  Juan  und  Faust  (1829).  Grabbe 
und  Faust,  |iere  ajme(j  at  combining  in  one  drama  the  two  great  crea- 
tions of  Goethe  and  Mozart ;  his  poetic  imagination  shrank 
from  nothing,  and  the  result  was  a  play  unsuited  for  the 
stage,  but  full  of  dramatic  life  and  genuine  poetry.  Don 
Juan  und  Fanst  was  followed  by  two  ambitious  historical 
dramas,  Kaiser  Friedrich  Barbarossa  (1829)  and  Kaiser  Hein- 
rich  VI.  (1830),  which  were  intended  to  open  a  series  of 
tragedies  on  the  Hohenstaufen  dynasty  :  these  plays  are  not 
without  striking  dramatic  situations  and  moments,  but  they  are 
marred  by  the  empty  rhetoric  into  which  Grabbe's  grandiose 
language  too  often  falls.  Gorgeous,  again,  is  the  canvas  on 
Napoleon,  .  which  the  last  episodes  in  Napoleon's  career  are  painted, 
Napoleon,  oder  die  hundert  Tage  (1831).  '  This  is  as  far 
from  being  a  normal  drama  as  anything  Grabbe  wrote — it 
is  only  a  succession  of  magnificent  scenes  in  Elba,  Paris, 
and  on  the  field  of  Waterloo — but  each  scene  is  a  master- 
piece of  dramatic  characterisation.  Of  all  the  dramas  which 
in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  been  written 
round  Napoleon,  Grabbe's  unquestionably  takes  the  first 
place.  The  poet,  however,  was  going  rapidly  downhill :  for 
his  unhappy  marriage  he  alone  had  been  to  blame,  and 
with  every  year  he  grew  more  addicted  to  drink.  In  Diissel- 
dorf,  Immermann  offered  him  a  helping  hand,  but  this  only 
staved  off  for  a  time  the  inevitable  end ;  spinal  disease  set 
in,  and  he  died  before  completing  his  thirty-fifth  year.  His 
last  two  works,  Hannibal  (1835)  and  Die  Hermannsschlacht 
(1838),  add  nothing  to  his  standing  as  a  poet. 

M.  Beer,  Mention  must  also  be  made  here  of  Michael  Beer  (1800- 

1800-33.        33^  a  native  of  Berlin,  who,  in  his  tragedies,  Der  Paria  (in 

one  act,  1826)  and  Struensee  (1829),  occasionally  anticipates 

the  psychological  methods  of  Hebbel.      Beer's  friend,  Eduard 

von  Schenk  (1788-1841),  on  the  other  hand, — as  is  to  be  seen 

from  his  drama  Belisar  (1829), — was  content  to  imitate  the 

E.  Rau-        Romantic   drama.1     Where    Grabbe  and    Beer  failed,   Ernst 

pach,  1784-   Raupach  (i  784-1852),  an  inferior  Kotzebue,  a  playwright  desti- 

1  Beer's  Sammtliche  Werke,  Leipzig,   1836;  Schenk's  Schauspiele,  3  vols., 
Stuttgart,  1829-35.     Cp.  F.  Bobertag,  I.e.,  197  ff. 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  495 

tute  of  poetic  ideals,  won  popularity.  Raupach's  many  his- 
torical dramas — including  a  series  of  no  less  than  twenty-four 
on  the  Hohenstaufens — are  long  forgotten  even  by  name ;  and 
Raupach  himself  would  also  be  forgotten,  were  it  not  for  the 
witty  attacks  made  on  him  by  Platen,  Immermann,  and  Heine. 

The  work  of  Karl  von  Holtei  (i  798-1880), x  a  native  of 
Breslau,  occupies  a  place  to  itself  in  the  drama  of  the  century.  K.  von 
Holtei's  most  characteristic  plays  were  "  Liederspiele  " — that  is  Holtei88^ 
to  say,  adaptations  of  the  French  "  vaudeville  "  to  the  German 
stage.  Der  alte  Feldherr  (1826)  and  Lenore  (1828),  the  latter 
a  dramatisation  of  Burger's  poem,  owed  their  widespread  popu- 
larity to  the  songs  they  contained ;  while  Lorbeerbaum  und 
Bettelstab  (1840),  an  experiment  in  a  higher  form  of  comedy, 
is  marred  by  excessive  sentimentality.  As  playwright,  actor, 
and  theatre-manager,  Holtei  led  a  checkered,  unsettled  life — 
it  is  vividly  described  in  his  autobiography,  Vierzig  Jahre 
(1843-50) — until  about  1850,  when,  growing  weary  of  his 
wanderings,  he  lived  for  many  years  in  Graz.  From  1864 
on,  his  home  was  Breslau,  where  he  died  in  1880.  Following 
Hebel's  example,  Holtei  also  wrote  poems  in  his  native 
dialect,  and  many  of  the  Schlesischen  Gedichte  (1830)  have 
become  Volkslieder.  His  novels  (Die  Vagabunden,  1851  ; 
Der  letzte  Komodiant,  1863)  are  interesting  in  so  far  as  he 
draws  on  his  own  experiences,  but  they  are  loosely  con- 
structed, and  the  character -drawing  is  superficial.  Among 
other  dramatists,  the  Danish  Romanticist,  Adam  Oehlen- 
schlager  (lyyg-iSso),2  who  was  ambitious  to  acquire  a 
reputation  in  Germany,  must  be  mentioned,  if  only  as  the 
author  of  a  German  tragedy,  Correggio  (1816),  which  was 
frequently  played  in  its  day.  His  many  plays  on  Scandi- 
navian themes  were  less  to  German  tastes. 

Although,    as   regards  dramatic   literature,   these    years    of  The  Ro- 
Romantic  decay  were  unfavourable,  the  opera  or  music-drama  " 
passed  through  a  remarkable  phase  of  development.     In  1805, 
Ludwig  von  Beethoven  (1770-1827)  created  the  first  markedly 
Romantic   opera,  Fidelio,  the  text  of  which   was   of  French 
origin.     The   representative   musical  dramatist,  however,  was  Weber™" 
Karl  Maria  von  Weber  (1786-1826);   Friedrich  Kind's  Der  1786-1826. 

1  Erziihlende  Schriften,  39vols.,  Breslau,  1861-66;   Theater,  6  vols.,  Berlin, 
1867  ;  Schlesisehc  Gedichte,  2oth  ed.,  Berlin,  1894. 
J  Werke  (in  German),  and  ed. ,  21  vols.,  Breslau,  1839. 


496 


THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


K.  L.  Im- 

mermann, 
1796-1840. 


Merlin, 
1833. 


Freischiitz,  with  Weber's  music  (1821),  was  at  once  accepted 
by  the  nation  as  the  ideal  of  a  Romantic  music -drama. 
This  work  was  followed  by  Euryanthe  (1823)  and  Oberon 
(1826),  both  of  which,  however,  were  placed  at  a  disadvantage 
owing  to  the  mediocrity  of  their  texts.  Besides  Weber,  the 
chief  opera-composers  in  the  first  half  of  the  century  were 
Ludwig  Spohr  (1784-1859),  H.  A.  Marschner  (1795-1861) — 
the  composer  of  Der  Vampir  (1828),  Der  Templer  und  die 
Jiidin  (based  on  Scott's  Ivanhoe,  1829),  and  Hans  Heiling 
(1838)  —  Albert  Lortzing  (1803-51),  the  master  of  the 
Romantic  "  Volksoper,"  and  Otto  Nicolai  (1810-49).  Finally, 
in  1850,  was  produced  Robert  Schumann's  (1810-56)  only 
opera,  Genoveva.  A  less  healthy  feature  in  the  music  of  this 
period  was  the  so-called  "  grand  opera,"  of  which  Michael 
Beer's  brother,  Jakob,  known  as  Giacomo  Meyerbeer  (1791- 
1864),  was  the  leading  exponent ;  but  Meyerbeer  found  a  more 
favourable  soil  for  his  art  in  France  than  in  Germany,  and 
the  texts  of  his  works  were  written  by  French  playwrights. 
Thus,  a  national  German  opera  which,  as  we  shall  see  in  a 
later  chapter,  culminated  in  the  work  of  Richard  Wagner, 
was  not  the  least  valuable  bequest  which  the  nation  received 
from  the  Romantic  movement. 

One  of  the  last — from  the  standpoint  of  literary  evolution, 
the  very  last — of  the  Romanticists  is  Karl  Leberecht  Immer- 
mann, 
1840. 

1827,  was  appointed  Landgerichtsrat  at  Diisseldorf.  Immer- 
mann  experimented,  more  or  less,  in  all  forms  of  Romantic 
literature :  he  wrote,  for  instance,  a  "  Fate  tragedy,"  Die 
Verschollene  (1822);  he  followed  in  Arnim's  footsteps  with  a 
drama  on  Cardenio  und  Celinde  (1826),  and  in  Das  Trauer- 
spiel  in  Tirol  (1828),  the  hero  of  which  is  the  famous 
Tyrolese  patriot,  Andreas  Hofer,  he  introduced  supernatural 
episodes  in  the  Romantic  style.  Alexis  (1832),  a  trilogy 
based  on  the  history  of  Peter  the  Great,  had  even  less  success 
than  Das  Trauerspiel  in  Tirol ;  but  in  Merlin^  eine  Mythe 
(1832),  Immermann  created,  if  not  a  drama  for  the  theatre, 
at  least  a  dramatic  poem  of  singular  depth  and  beauty. 
Aferlin  is,  as  the  author  himself  said,  the  "  Tragodie  des 

1  Werke,  ed.   R.  Boxberger,  20  vols.,  Berlin,  1883 ;  also  a  selection  by  M. 
Koch,  4  vols.  (D.N.L.,  159,  160  [1887-88]). 


1  who  was  born  at   Magdeburg  in   1796,  and  died  in 
He  studied  law  at  Halle,  fought  at  Waterloo,  and,  in 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  497 

Widerspruchs " :  the  son  of  Satan  and  a  Christian  virgin, 
Merlin  is  a  kind  of  Anti-Christ  who  is  racked  by  the  antith- 
eses of  existence;  the  spiritual  and  the  sensual,  renunciation 
and  enjoyment,  are  at  war  within  him,  and  he  dies,  baffled 
in  endeavouring  to  reconcile  them.  Merlin  was  the  last  of 
the  many  attempts  which  the  German  "Romantik"  made 
to  win  for  its  ideas  the  great  secular  mysteries  associated 
with  the  Reformation  Faust  and  the  medieval  legends  of 
the  Holy  Graal. 

In  1836  appeared  Immermann's  first  important  novel,  Die  Die  Epi- 
Epigonen.  This  work,  which  describes  the  relations  in  which 
a  young  aristocrat  of  Bremen  stands  towards  several  women, 
contains  the  essence  of  Immermann's  own  personality.  He 
felt  to  the  core  that  he,  like  his  hero,  was  an  "  Epigone,"  the 
"  late  born "  of  an  age  then  rapidly  passing  away ;  and  the 
novel  contains  the  tragedy  of  his  life : — 

"Wir  konnen  nicht  leugnen,  dass  iiber  unsre  Haupter  eine 
gefahrliche  Weltepoche  hereingebrochen  ist.  Ungliicks  haben 
die  Menschen  zu  alien  Zeiten  genug  gehabt ;  der  Fluch  des 
gegenwartigen  Geschlechts  ist  aber,  sich  auch  ohne  alles  besondre 
Leid  unselig  zu  fUhlen.  Ein  odes  Wanken  und  Schwanken,  ein 
lacherliches  Sich-ernst-stellen  und  Zerstreutsein,  ein  Haschen, 
man  weiss  nicht,  wonach,  eine  Furcht  vor  Schrecknissen,  die  um 
so  unheimlicher  sind,  als  sie  keine  Gestalt  haben  !  Es  ist,  als  ob 
die  Menschheit,  in  ihrem  Schifflein  auf  einem  iibergewaltigen 
Meere  umhergeworfen,  an  einer  moralischen  Seekrankheit  leide, 
deren  Ende  kaum  abzusehn  ist.  .  .  .  Wir  sind,  um  in  einem 
Wort  das  ganze  Elend  auszusprechen,  Epigonen  und  tragen  an 
der  Last,  die  jeder  Erb-  und  Nachgeborenschaft  anzukleben 
pflegt." J 

Die  Epigonen  is  largely  indebted  to  Wilhelm  Meister ;  indeed, 
it  was  virtually  the  last  Romantic  novel  for  which  Goethe's 
work  served  as  model.2  Like  Meister^  Die  Epigonen  has  an 
ethical  background, — the  struggle  between  the  new  industrial 
classes  and  the  old  aristocracy, — and  the  problems  it  discusses 
bring  it  into  touch  with  the  social  philosophy  of  Goethe's 
later  years. 

In  1838,  Immermann  published  his  second  romance,  Munch-   Munch- 
fiausen,  eine  Geschichte  in  Arabesken,  which  rivalled  the  first  in  ^"g"1' 

1  Boxberger's  edition,  5,  123  f. 

2  Tieck's  Der  junge  Tischlermeister  (see  above,  p.  484)  also  appeared  in 
1836,  but  it  was  written,  for  the  most  part,  twenty  years  earlier. 

2  I 


498  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

popularity.  As  a  novel,  Miinchhausen  cannot  be  compared 
with  its  predecessor :  it  is  a  receptacle  for  all  manner  of 
opinions  thrown  together  without  order,  a  bulwark  from  be- 
hind which  the  author  makes  satirical  attacks  upon  his  time. 
Immermann  is  here  obviously  under  the  influence  of  Jean 
Paul,  whose  carelessness  with  regard  to  form  he  imitates ; 
but  where  Jean  Paul,  or  even  Hoffmann,  might  have  justi- 
fied himself,  Immermann  is  not  convincing.  The  fantastic 
imagination  required  for  a  work  of  this  kind  was  foreign  to 
his  nature,  and  he  was  not  sufficiently  gifted  with  humour. 
In  the  conglomerate  mass  of  Miinchhausen^  however,  one 
gem  lies  buried,  the  "Novelle"  Der  Oberhof.  Here,  at 
least,  Immermann  is  not  an  "  Epigone " ;  Der  Oberhof  is 
his  master-work  and  the  finest  short  story  of  peasant-life  that 
was  written  before  the  middle  of  the  century.  Arnim  and 
Brentano  had  taken  the  first  steps  towards  faithfully  por- 
traying the  German  peasant;  what  they  began,  Immermann 
completed  in  the  sturdy  Westphalian  "  Hofschulze,"  who  is 
the  hero  of  Der  Oberhof. 

Immermann  stood  in  one  other  respect  at  the  beginning  of 
dorfer An-  a  new  era  rather  than  at  the  close  of  an  old  one:  between 
1835  and  1838,  he  took  an  active  share  in  the  direction 
of  the  theatre  in  Diisseldorf.1  What  Tieck  had  attempted 
in  Dresden,  in  his  impracticable,  Romantic  way,  Immer- 
mann realised  at  Diisseldorf;  he  produced  the  masterpieces 
of  dramatic  literature,  above  all,  plays  by  Shakespeare  and 
Calderon,  as  they  had  never  previously  been  performed  on 
the  stage ;  and  since  these  dramaturgic  experiments  of  his — 
the  record  of  them  will  be  found  in  his  Diisseldorfer  Anfdnge 
(1840) — the  German  theatre  has  occupied  the  leading  position 
in  Europe  as  an  institution  for  interpreting  dramatic  poetry. 
A  finely  wrought,  although  not  inspired,  version  of  Tristan 
und  Isolde  (published  in  1842)  was  Immermann's  last  work, 
but  he  did  not  live  to  finish  it. 

Writing  at  so  late  a  date,  Immermann  naturally  came  into 
conflict  with  the  pioneers  of  the  post-Romantic  epoch,  al- 
though, strange  to  say,  his  enemies  did  not  belong  to  the 
ranks  of  " Young  Germany";  indeed,  "Young  Germany,"  as 
represented  by  Heine,  greeted  his  work  in  a  friendly  spirit. 
His  most  ruthless  critic  was  August  Graf  von  Platen-Haller- 

1  Cp.  R.  Fellner,  Gesckichte  einer  deutschen  Musterbuhne,  Stuttgart,  1888. 


CHAP.  VII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


499 


1796-1835. 


Venedig, 
1825. 


miinde.1     Born  at  Ansbach,  in  the  same  year  as  Immermann,  A.  von 
Platen  occupies  a  somewhat  anomalous  position  in  literature :   fjaUer- 
a  bitter  antagonist  of  Romanticism  as  he  found  it,  he  was,   munde. 
at  the  same  time,  no  partisan  of  "Young  Germany."      He 
began  as  an  imitator  of  the  Westostlichc  Divan  in  1821,  and 
three  years  later  published  a  collection  of  poems  in  oriental 
forms,   entitled   Ghaselen.      These  were  followed  by  Sonette 
aus  Venedig  (1825),  the  finest  collection  of  sonnets  in  the  Sonette aus 
German  tongue.     In  these  poems  Platen  appears  as  the  least 
subjective  of  all   German  poets ;    statuesque   and   cold,   his 
sonnets  possess  a  wonderful  classic  beauty,  which  was  as  little 
in  harmony  with  the  poet's  time  as  with  his  nationality.     One 
of  them  must  here  serve  as  an  example  of  Platen's  art : — 

"  Venedig  liegt  nur  noch  im  Land  der  Traume, 

Und  wirft  nur  Schatten  her  aus  alten  Tagen, 
Es  liegt  der  Leu  der  Republik  erschlagen, 
Und  ode  feiern  seines  Kerkers  Raume. 

Die  ehrnen  Hengste,  die  durch  salz'ge  Schaume 
Dahergeschleppt,  auf  jener  Kirche  ragen, 
Nicht  mehr  dieselben  sind  sie,  ach  sie  tragen 
Des  korsikan'schen  Uberwinders  Zaume. 

Wo  ist  das  Volk  von  Konigen  geblieben, 
Das  diese  Marmorhauser  durfte  bauen, 
Die  nun  verfallen  und  gemach  zerstieben  ? 

Nur  selten  finden  auf  der  Enkel  Brauen 

Der  Ahnen  grosse  Ziige  sich  geschrieben, 
An  Dogengrabern  in  den  Stein  gehauen."3 

In  1826,  Italy  became  his  permanent  home.  The  antique 
now  appeared  to  him,  as  to  Goethe  a  generation  before,  an 
antidote  to  the  extravagance  of  the  German  spirit ;  and,  as 
Goethe  had  turned  from  the  "  Sturm  und  Drang "  to  the 
literature  of  Greece,  so  Platen  sought  in  un-German  metres 
a  refuge  from  the  degeneration  of  Romanticism.  But,  after 
all,  he  was  still  a  Romanticist  when  he  formed  his  dramatic 
poem,  Der  glaserne  Panto ffel  (1824),  out  of  the  fairy-tales  of 
Schneewittchen  and  Aschenbrodel ;  he  was  a  Romanticist  when 
he  chose  stories  from  the  Arabian  Nights  as  the  materials  of 
his  last  epic,  Die  Abbasiden  (i  834) ;  he  is,  above  all,  Romantic 

1  Sammlliche  Werke,  edited  by  C.  C.  Redlich,  3  vols.,  Berlin,  1883;  also  by 
K.  Goedeke,  and  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1882. 
*  C.  C.  Redlich's  edition,  i,  160  f. 


5oo 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Diever- 


1826. 


Derroman- 
tische  Odi- 
pus,  1829. 


in  the  meaning  which  the  Schlegels  gave  to  that  word,  when 
he  expresses  his  poetic  ideas  in  Romance  metres  and  rhythms. 

At  the  same  time,  Platen  realised  that  Romanticism  had 
fallen  upon  evil  days.  The  "  Schicksalstragodie  "  awakened 
his  virulent  hatred,  and,  in  1826,  he  satirised  it  effectually  in 
Die  verhdngnissvolle  Gabel.  A  fork  here  takes  the  place  of 
the  dagger  by  which,  in  the  typical  "  fate  tragedy,"  the  family 
ancestress  meets  her  death,  and  before  the  close  of  Platen's 
drama,  a  dozen  descendants  have  been  stabbed  by  the  "  fatal 
fork."  Der  romantische  Odipus  (1829)  is  a  satire  on  the 
more  general  aspects  of  Romanticism,  especially  on  its  form- 
lessness and  its  love  for  experimenting  with  new  and  uncouth 
metres  ;  and  heie  the  target  of  Platen's  wit  was,  above  all, 
Immermann  ("Nimmermann"),  who  had  kindled  his  wrath  by 
a  word  of  adverse  criticism.  Both  these  plays  were  inspired 
by  Tieck's  satirical  dramas  ;  but  Platen  went  to  work  more 
seriously  than  his  predecessor;  he  aspired  to  be  a  German 
Aristophanes,  and  even  strove  to  imitate  the  Greek  dramatist's 
metrical  variety.  He  failed,  however,  to  attain  his  object, 
just  as  Tieck  and  Heine,  as  every  modern  German  satirist, 
is  bound  to  fail  ;  he  is  merely  a  literary  satirist,  where  Aristo- 
phanes attacked  political  and  social  abuses.  To  find  the  real 
Aristophanic  satirists  of  German  literature,  we  must  go  back 
to  the  opponents  of  the  Reformation. 

Platen  died  at  Syracuse,  in  1835,  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine. 
His  Tagebiicher?-  which  have  recently  been  published  in  full, 
are  his  best  biography  :  these  extraordinarily  detailed  records 
of  the  poet's  life  disclose  the  personality  which  one  seeks  in 
vain  beneath  the  smooth  objectivity  of  his  verse.  His  place 
in  literature  depends  upon  his  command  of  language  and 
metre  ;  he  is  without  question  the  most  perfect  artist  among 
German  poets,  a  master  of  beautiful  form,  and  his  fine  sonnet, 
Grabschrift)  shows  that  he  was  conscious  of  his  peculiar 
merits  :  — 

"  Ich  war  ein  Dichter,  und  empfand  die  Schlage 
Der  btisen  Zeit,  in  welcher  ich  entsprossen  ; 
Doch  schon  als  Jiingling  hab'  ich  Ruhm  genossen, 
Und  auf  die  Sprache  driickt'  ich  mein  Geprage."2 


1  Edited  by  G.  von  Laubmann  and  L.  von  Scheffler,  2  vols.,  Stuttgart, 
1900. 
a  C.  C.  Redlich's  edition,  i.  658  f. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

"YOUNG  GERMANY." 

EVERY  movement  of  positive  value  in  literature  sets  out  with 
the  object  of  sweeping  away  the  conventions  and  unrealities 
of  the  preceding  age,  and  of  bringing  poetry  into  closer 
relation  to  reality.  So  the  Romantic  movement  had  begun, 
and,  in  the  same  way,  began  the  revolt  against  Romanticism, 
which  has  now  to  be  considered.  In  its  decay,  as  we 
have  seen,  Romanticism  lost  all  touch  with  life :  it  became 
fantastic  and  insincere.  A  reaction  was  inevitable,  and,  for 
this  reaction,  we  have  to  look  to  the  writers  who  form  the 
group  known  as  "das  junge  Deutschland." l  These  "Young  "Das 
Germans"  repudiated  the  Romantic  spirit — they  laughed  to  J"n£e 
scorn  the  "  mondbeglanzte  Zaubernacht "  and  the  quixotic  land." 
search  for  the  "  blaue  Blume  " — but  they  had  nothing  better, 
not  even  a  healthy  aesthetic  realism,  to  put  in  its  place ; 
they  employed  literature  merely  in  the  service  of  material  and 
political  ends.  "Young  Germany,"  in  fact,  was  a  political 
rather  than  a  literary  movement ;  in  the  history  of  literature, 
it  marks  an  era  of  depression.  At  the  same  time,  the  intel- 
lectual development  of  modern  Germany  would  have  been 
much  less  rapid  had  it  not  come  through  this  phase  —  a 
phase  which  was  an  indispensable  forerunner  of  unification 
forty  years  afterwards.  Under  "Young  Germany,"  the  nation 
became  political,  and  the  newspaper  a  force ;  German 
authors,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  their  colleagues  in 
France,  turned  from  metaphysical  dreams  and  medieval 
poetry  to  the  social  questions  of  the  moment.  The  delicate 

1  Cp.  J.  Proelss,  Das  junge  Deutschland,  Stuttgart,  1892;  G.  Brandes,  Det 
unge  Tyskland  (in  Hovedstromninger  i  det  igde  Aarhundredes  Litteratur,  vol. 
5),  Copenhagen,  1890  (also  in  Samlede  Skrifter,  6,  Copenhagen,  1900,  365  ff.) ; 
German  translation,  Leipzig,  1891. 


502  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

spirituality  of  the  Romantic  age  disappeared ;  "  emancipation 
of  the  flesh,"  "liberalism,"  "esprit"  were  the  watchwords  of 
the  new  time,  and  national  character  was  prized  less  highly 
than  a  successful  imitation  of  French  models.  The  superiority 
of  France,  in  poetry  and  art,  as  in  politics,  was  one  of  the 
established  convictions  of  "  Young  Germany."  And  in  the 
end,  literature  was  not  altogether  a  loser ;  it  emerged  from 
its  subservience  to  French  taste  less  provincial,  broader  in 
its  sympathies,  and  more  cosmopolitan.  But,  as  literary 
reformers,  apart  from  their  social  and  political  ideas,  the 
Young  German  writers  failed  conspicuously  to  counterbalance 
the  levelling  tendency  of  Hegelianism,  to  break  the  spell  of 
mediocrity  that  was  due  to  Hegel's  influence. 

The  hopes  of  a  united  Germany  cherished  by  the  patriots 
of  the  Napoleonic  wars  had  been  rudely  extinguished  in 
1814,  by  the  establishment  of  the  "Deutsche  Bund."  Ger- 
many lay  at  the  mercy  of  Prince  Metternich.  In  vain  did 
L.  Jahn,  Ludwig  Jahn  (1778-1852)  and  his  athletic  enthusiasts — 
1778-1852.  gymnastics  were  by  him  made  to  serve  patriotic  ends — 
endeavour  to  uphold  the  nation's  pride  under  the  galling 
tyranny,  while  the  "  Burschenschaften  "  at  the  universities  were 
regarded  by  the  Government  as  little  better  than  revolutionary 
clubs.  The  Paris  Revolution  of  1830  to  some  extent  relieved 
the  pressure,  but  Germany  had  still  eighteen  years  to  wait  for 
a  brighter  political  epoch.  In  the  mean  time,  as  a  direct  out- 
come of  the  July  Revolution,  a  new  literary  movement  had 
arisen.  Phrases  like  "  Young  Germany  "  were  in  the  air ;  in 
Switzerland,  a  political  society,  a  branch  of  Mazzini's  "  la 
giovine  Europa,"  had  adopted  the  title  "  Das  junge  Deutsch- 
land,"  and,  in  1833,  H.  Laube  began  to  write  a  novel,  Das 
L.  Wien-  junge  Europa.  A  year  later,  in  1834,  Ludolf  Wienbarg 
barg,  1802-  (!8o2-72),  a  Privatdocent  in  the  University  of  Kiel,  pub- 
lished Asthetische  Feldzuge,  a  volume  of  lectures,  the  dedication 
of  which  opened  with  the  words,  "  Dir,  junges  Deutschland, 
widme  ich  diese  Reden,  nicht  dem  alien."  The  Asthetischen 
Feldzuge,  without  professing  to  embody  the  principles  of  the 
school,  contained  the  views  of  an  "  advanced "  thinker  of 
1834;  and  the  expression  "junges  Deutschland"  is  here 
used  for  the  first  time  with  reference  to  literature.  In  the 
following  year,  Laube  and  Gutzkow  planned  a  review  in  which 
they  proposed  to  combine  the  characteristics  of  the  traditional 


CHAP.  Vlll.]        THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  503 

literary  periodicals  with  those  of  the  French  reviews.  The 
new  journal,  originally  to  have  been  called  Das  junge 
Deutschland,  was  ultimately  announced  as  the  Deutsche 
Revue.  Before,  however,  the  first  number  was  published, 
the  German  Bundestag,  at  the  instigation  of  Austria,  issued 
a  decree  dated  December  10,  1835,  ordering  the  suppression 
of  the  "Schriften  aus  der  unter  dem  Namen  des  jungen 
Deutschlands  bekannten  litterarischen  Schule,  zu  welcher 
namentlich  Heinrich  Heine,  Karl  Gutzkow,  Ludolf  Wienbarg, 
Theodor  Mundt  und  Heinrich  Laube  gehoren  " ;  and  thus  it 
might  be  said  that  the  name,  even  the  very  existence,  of 
the  school  now  known  as  "  Young  Germany "  was  the  con- 
sequence of  a  decree  intended  for  its  suppression.  But  the 
two  oldest  members  of  the  group,  Ludwig  Borne  and  Heinrich 
Heine,  were  both  famous  before  the  July  Revolution. 

Ludwig  Borne,1  or  Lob  Baruch,  for  the  former  name  was  Ludwig 
only  assumed  after  his  conversion  to  Christianity  (1818),  f°8Te>8 
was  born  in  the  Frankfort  Ghetto  in  1786,  and  died  at  Paris 
in  1837.  His  father  sent  him  to  study  medicine  at  the 
University  of  Berlin,  and  here  he  fell  in  love  with  Henriette 
Herz,  who  was  more  than  twenty  years  his  senior.  In  1807, 
he  exchanged  medicine  for  more  congenial  political  studies 
at  Heidelberg  and  Giessen,  and,  four  years  later,  received 
an  official  position  in  his  native  town.  After  Napoleon's  fall 
and  the  re-establishment  of  Frankfort  as  a  free  city,  Borne 
was  obliged,  as  a  Jew,  to  resign  his  post.  He  turned 
to  journalism,  but  his  various  periodicals — the  best  of  them 
was  Die  Waage  (1818-21) — brought  him  into  constant  con- 
flict with  the  police.  In  1830,  he  made  Paris  his  home, 
and  from  here  wrote,  originally  as  private  letters  to  his  friend 
Jeannette  Wohl,  the  brilliant  Brief e  aus  Paris  ( 1830-33).  On  Briefe  aus 
their  publication,  they  were  suppressed  by  the  Bundestag,  a 
step  which  helped  to  make  them  the  most  popular  book  of 
the  day.  Borne's  Briefe  aus  Paris  are  at  a  disadvantage 
in  so  far  as  they  are  merely  documents  of  their  time ;  under 
the  guise  of  reports  from  Paris,  they  are  glowing  pleas  for 
reform  at  home,  determined  attempts  to  make  Germany 
ashamed  of  the  condition  of  slavery  to  which  her  rulers 
had  reduced  her.  They  are,  however,  strangely  unbalanced  : 

1  The  latest  edition  of  Bbrne's  Gesammelte  Schriften,  6  vols. ,  Leipzig,  1900. 
Cp.  M.  Holzmann,  L.  Borne,  set*  Lebcn  und  Wirken,  Berlin,  1888. 


504 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Short 
stories. 


Heinrich 

Heine, 

I797-I856. 


optimistic  and  sanguinary  as  long  as  there  is  hope  for  the 
cause  of  freedom  and  revolution,  depressed  at  every  defeat 
which  the  cause  has  to  sustain.  On  the  whole,  they  are 
excellent  examples  of  journalistic  writing :  Borne's  easy  style 
was  not  only  much  superior  to  the  lumbering  prose  in  which 
the  newspaper  of  his  time  was  written,  but  was  also  an  advance 
on  the  lengthy  periods  of  even  eminent  men  of  letters.  Thus, 
irrespective  of  their  contents,  the  Briefe  aus  Paris  mark  a 
stage  in  the  evolution  of  German  prose. 

As  a  critic  of  literature,  Borne's  opinions  were  almost  in- 
variably subordinate  to  his  political  and  social  standpoint. 
For  Jean  Paul  Richter,  for  instance,  he  had  unbounded  ad- 
miration, but  what  really  appealed  to  his  democratic  heart 
was  the  older  writer's  sympathy  for  the  poor  and  oppressed. 
He  imitated  Jean  Paul  in  a  witty,  superficial  way  in  his  own 
satires  and  short  stories,  the  most  familiar  of  which  are  the 
Monographic  der  deutschen  Postschnecke  (1821),  Der  Narr  im 
weissen  Schwan,  and  Der  Rsskiinstler  (1822);  but  his  imag- 
ination had  little  of  the  Romantic  delicacy  which  character- 
ised Richter's.  Borne  was  also  the  leader  of  a  crusade  against 
Goethe's  sovereignty  in  German  literature,  to  which  he  was 
impelled  less  by  the  poet's  work  than  by  his  aristocratic 
nature ;  the  respect  which  Goethe,  in  common  with  most 
writers  of  the  eighteenth  century,  had  for  princes,  was  distaste- 
ful to  the  journalist  who  assisted  at  the  July  Revolution. 

By  far  the  most  gifted  of  the  writers  who  belonged  to,  or  at 
least  for  a  part  of  their  lives  were  associated  with,  "Young 
Germany,"  is  Heinrich  Heine.1  The  ties  that  bound  Heine 
to  the  school  were  not,  however,  so  close  as  in  Borne's 
case.  In  his  lyric  poetry,  Heine  drew  his  inspiration  from 
the  Romanticists,  and  was  able  to  share  the  feelings  of  the 
latter  towards  Goethe  —  although  a  time  came  when  he 
attacked  the  movement  to  which  he  nominally  belonged,  with 
a  mockery  and  bitterness  of  which  Heine  alone  was  capable. 
He  sympathised — that  is  to  say,  one  side  of  his  Protean 
nature  sympathised — with  the  Young  German  antagonism  to 

1  Editions  of  Heine's  works  by  G.  Karpeles,  9  vols.,  and  ed.,  Berlin,  1893, 
and  E.  Elster,  7  vols.,  Leipzig,  1887-90.  Of  literature  on  Heine  the  most 
noteworthy  books  are  A.  Strodtmann,  Heinrich  Heines  I^ben  und  Wcrke,  2 
vols.,  3rd  ed.,  Berlin,  1884;  W.  Bolsche,  Heinrich  Heine;  Versuch  einer 
dsthetisch-kritischen  Analyse  seiner  Werke,  Leipzig,  1887,  and  J.  Legras, 
Henri  Heine  foete,  Paris,  1897. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  505 

the  "  Romantik,"  and  he  agreed  heart  and  soul  with  them 
when  they  pointed  to  France  as  the  Promised  Land,  and 
to  Paris  as  the  New  Jerusalem. 

Heinrich,  or  more  correctly  Harry  Heine,  was  a  native  of 
Diisseldorf,  where  he  was  born  on  the  I3th  of  December, 
1797.  After  more  than  one  unsuccessful  attempt  to  establish 
him  in  business,  Salomon  Heine,  a  wealthy  uncle  in  Hamburg, 
consented  to  him  matriculating  at  the  University  of  Bonn  as  In  Bonn, 
a  student  of  law.  Law  had  as  little  attraction  for  Heine  as 
commerce,  but  in  Bonn  he  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing 
lectures  by  A.  W.  Schlegel.  He  spent  his  second  term  at 
the  University  of  Gottingen,  from  which  he  was  expelled  for 
his  share  in  a  duel.  Thereupon  he  went  to  Berlin,  where 
he  had  access  to  the  salon  of  Rahel  Varnhagen,  and  where, 
in  1822,  he  published  his  first  volume  of  Gedichte ;  also, 
about  this  time,  he  completed  two  tragedies,  Almansor  and 
William  Ratdiff  (1823),  which,  like  the  early  poems,  relate 
his  own  "junge  Leiden."  But  none  of  these  works  attracted 
much  attention.  For  four  years  Heine  cherished  an  un- 
requited passion  for  one  of  his  cousins,  a  daughter  of 
Salomon  Heine;  in  1823,  however,  when  at  Cuxhaven, 
he  fell  in  love  with  her  younger  sister.  In  the  following 
year  he  returned  to  Gottingen,  and  in  the  autumn  made  an 
excursion  through  the  Harz  Mountains,  the  account  of  which  Die  /fare- 
occupies  half  the  first  part  of  the  Reisebilder.  In  1825,  reise>  *826 
Heine  turned  Christian,  and,  a  few  weeks  later,  graduated 
from  Gottingen  as  Doctor  of  Law.  With  the  Harzreise 

(1826)  he     became    famous,     and    the    Buck    der    Lieder  Buchder 

(1827)  made  him  at  one  stroke  the  most  popular  poet  in   I^er> 
Germany.      The  second  part  of  the  Reisebilder  (containing, 
besides  a  continuation  of  Die  Nordsee,  Das  Buck  le  Grand} 

was  published  in  1827;  the  third,  descriptive  of  his  journey 
to  the  Baths  of  Lucca,  three  years  later;  while  the  fourth 
volume  is  taken  up  partly  with  an  account  of  Die  Stadt 
Lucca  and  partly  with  Englische  Fragmente  (1831),  being 
Heine's  impressions  of  a  journey  to  England  in  1827. 

From    1831   on,  Paris  was   Heine's  home,  where  he  was   in  Paris, 
mainly  occupied  as    correspondent  for   German    newspapers 
(Franzosische  Zustande,  1833;  Der  Salon,  1835-40;  Lutetia, 
1854).     His  warm  sympathies   for  France  and  his   satirical 
attacks  on  Germany  commended  him  not  only  to  the  "  Young 


506 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


German "  party,  but  also  to  the  French  Government,  from 
which,  between  1836  and  1848,  he  received  a  pension.  He 
never,  however,  ceased  to  love  Germany  with  a  Romantic 
affection : — 

"  O,  Deutschland,  meine  feme  Liebe, 
Gedenk'  ich  deiner,  wein'  ich  fast ! 
Das  muntre  Frankreich  scheint  mir  triibe, 
Das  leichte  Volk  wird  mir  zur  Last." 1 

In  the  winter  of  1834-35,  Heine  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Eugenie  Mirat  ("  Mathilde "),  who,  after  being  his  faithful 
comrade  for  six  ye^ars,  became  his  wife.  Neither  Die 
Romantische  Schule  (1836)  nor  his  attack  on  Borne,  Ludivig 
Borne  (1840),  places  the  poet  in  a  favourable  light,  but 
in  1844,  as  the  result  of  a  visit  to  Germany,  he  published 
an  admirable  satire,  Deutschland,  ein  IVintermarchen,  and  a 
volume  of  Neue  Gedichte,  the  first  since  the  Buck  der  Lieder. 
Atta  Troll,  Atta  Troll,  ein  Sommermdrchen  (1847),  tne  hero  of  which 
is  a  dancing-bear  in  the  Pyrenean  village  of  Cauterets,  is,  on 
the  whole,  Heine's  most  sustained  poem.  The  slight  fable  of 
Atta  Troll — the  bear  escapes  from  its  keeper  and  takes  refuge 
in  the  famous  Vale  of  Roncevaux,  where  it  is  ultimately  shot 
— is  only  the  framework  for  an  attack  on  the  political  poetry 
which,  about  1840,  began  to  spread  over  Germany.  But 
keen  as  was  the  lash  of  Heine's  satire,  the  magic  beauty 
with  which  he  decked  out  the  Romantic  scenery  of  Ronce- 
vaux was  still  more  effectual  in  making  the  "  leathern  "  verse 
of  the  time  ridiculous.  Atta  Troll  is,  as  the  poet  himself 
said  of  it,  "das  letzte  freie  Waldlied  der  Romantik."  On 
January  3,  1846,  he  wrote  to  Varnhagen  von  Ense — 

"  Das  tausendjahrige  Reich  der  Romantik  hat  ein  Ende,  und  ich 
selber  war  sein  letzter  und  abgedankter  Fabelkonig.  Hatte  ich 
riicht  die  Krone  vom  Haupte  fortgeschmissen  und  den  Kittel 
angezogen,  sie  batten  mich  richtig  gekopft.  Vor  vier  Jahren  hatte 
ich,  ehe  ich  abtriinnig  wurde  von  mir  selber,  noch  ein  Geliiste,  mit 
den  alien  Traumgenossen  mich  herumzutummeln  im  Mondschein — 
und  ich  schrieb  den  'Atta  Troll,'  den  Schwanengesang  der  unter- 
gehenden  Periode,  und  Ihnen  habe  ich  ihn  gewidmet."  2 

Roman-  The    fine    romances    and    pessimistic    lyrics    forming    the 

ero,  1851.     Romancero  were  published  in  1851,  and  the  Letzten  Gedichte 


1  E.  Elster's  edition,  i,  272. 
a  Briefe,  2  (G.  Karpeles'  edition,  9),   324. 
( Werke,  2,  420). 


Cp.  the  close  of  Atta   Troll 


CHAP,  vill.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  507 

in  1853  and  1855.  In  1848,  Heine  was  struck  down  by  a 
disease  of  the  spine,  which  condemned  him  for  eight  years  to 
a  "  Matratzengruft."  He  died  on  the  lyth  of  February,  1856. 
A  gleam  of  light  in  his  last  years  was  his  love  for  Camille 
Selden — her  real  name  was  Elise  von  Krienitz — the  faithful 
"  Mouche,"  who  nursed,  him  in  the  final  stage  of  his  illness. 

Heinrich  Heine  is  the  most  cosmopolitan  poet  of  Germany.  Heine  as 
With  remarkable  unanimity,  the  nations  of  Europe,  and  espe-  'yric  P061- 
cially  the  Latin  nations,  have  made  themselves  his  champions, 
maintaining  with  a  persistence  which  his  own  countrymen 
often  find  it  difficult  to  understand,  that  among  German  poets 
he  is  second  to  Goethe  only.  No  lyric  poet  has  been  so 
widely  read  in  all  lands  as  Heine,  no  German  book  of  the 
century  has  exerted  so  enduring  an  influence  as  the  Buck 
der  Lieder.  The  fact  is  that  Heine,  as  none  of  his  pre- 
decessors, made  the  German  lyric  European ;  he  stripped  it 
of  many  of  its  exclusively  national  qualities.  In  place,  for 
instance,  of  that  vague  spirituality  peculiar  to  German  song, 
we  find  in  his  poems — in  those  at  least  of  the  Buck  der 
Lieder — a  bold  imagery,  which  all  nationalities  are  able  to 
appreciate.  Heine  had  the  power  of  giving  concrete  and 
definite  expression  to  the  most  subtle  feelings ;  delicate 
"  Stimmungen "  he  clothed  in  startling  metaphors  which, 
in  the  poems  of  the  first  period,  almost  jar  upon  the  reader. 
The  lyric  beauty  of  verses  like  Was  will  die  einsame  Thrdne  ? 
or — 

"  Aus  meinen  Thranen  spriessen 

Viel  bliihende  Blumen  hervor, 

Und  meine  Seufzer  warden 

Ein  Nachtigallenchor  " ; 

or — in  a  less  degree — of 

"  Ein  Fichtenbaum  steht  einsam 
Im  Norden  auf  kahler  Hdh'. 
Ihn  schlafert ;  mil  weisser  Decke 
Umhiillen  ihn  Eis  und  Schnee. 

Er  traumt  von  einer  Palme, 
Die  fern  im  Morgenland 
Einsam  und  schweigend  trauert 
Auf  brennender  Felsenwand,"  * 


1  E.  Elster's  edition,  i,  66,  78,  and  108.     Cp.  G.  Brandes,  Del  unge  Tysk- 
land  (Samlede  Skrifter,  6),  446  ff. 


508  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

recalls  not  the  national  German  •  "  Lied,"  but  the  Song  of 
Songs:  in  other  words,  Heine,  like  his  contemporary,  Riickert, 
introduced  into  the  Romantic  lyric  a  note  of  orientalism. 
While,  however,  in  Riickert,  this  exotic  element  was  easily 
recognised,  it  was  combined  in  Heine's  case  with  traditional 
German  elements.  Heine's  oriental  exaggeration  and  materi- 
alisation, combined  with  the  irony  which  he  was  always  ready 
to  pour  on  his  own  Romanticism,  were  new  and  strange, 
and  they  appealed  with  the  same  irresistible  force  to  his 
contemporaries  as  the  Byronic  "  Weltschmerz  "  had  appealed 
to  a  decade  earlier.  But,  nevertheless,  in  the  evolution 
of  the  German  lyric,  Heine  struck  an  insincere  note,  which 
may  be  sought  in  vain  in  Walther  von  der  Vogelweide, 
Goethe,  Eichendorff,  or  the  nameless  poets  of  the  Volkslied. 
Later  As  Heine  grew  older  a  change  came  over  his  poetry ;  the 

lyrics.  scoffing  and  extravagant  tone  of  so  many  of  the  lyrics  in  the 

Buck  der  Lieder  gradually  disappeared.  During  his  years  of 
suffering  in  Paris,  life  became  terribly  earnest,  and  the 
passion  with  which  it  closed  was  very  different  from  that  of 
his  Junge  Leiden.  The  feelings  expressed  in  the  verses  of 
Heine's  last  period  were  too  intense  to  admit  of  satirical 
witticisms.  No  poet  was  ever  more  sincere  than  he,  when 
he  wrote  Die  Wahlverlobten : — 

' '  Ich  weiss  es  jetzt.     Bei  Gott !  du  bist  es, 
Die  ich  geliebt.     Wie  bitter  ist  es, 
Wenn  im  Momente  des  Erkennens 
Die  Stunde  schlagt  des  ew'gen  Trennens  ! 
Der  Willkomm  ist  zu  gleicher  Zeit 
Ein  Lebewohl !     Wir  scheiden  heut' 
Auf  immerdar.     Kein  Wiedersehn 
Gibt  es  fur  uns  in  Himmelshohn  " 1 — 

or  that  mystic,  Romantic  epithalamium,  composed  a  few  weeks 
before  his  death,  in  which  he  dreams  of  himself  lying  dead 
in  a  marble  sarcophagus,  and  of  his  "  Mouche  "  as  a  passion- 
flower above  his  head. 

Ballads.  In   objective   poetry,    where,    above   all,    visual    power   is 

demanded,  Heine  was  a  master.  Volkslieder  such  as  the 
Loreley,  in  which  he  gave  final  form  to  Brentano's  poem ; 
ballads,  such  as  Die  Grenadiere  (written  in  1819),  JBelsazer, 
Die  Wallfahrt  nach  Kevlaar,  and  Das  Schlachtfeld  von  Hast- 

1  E.  Elster's  edition.  2,  45. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  509 

ings,  are  worthy  of  a  place  beside  the  best  of  Schiller's  or 
Uhland's.  The  entire  poetry  which  sprang  up  round  Napoleon 
pales  before  the  simple  intensity  of  Heine's  verses — 

"  Nach  Frankreich  zogen  zwei  Grenadier', 
Die  waren  in  Russland  gefangen. 
Und  als  sie  kamen  ins  deutsche  Quartier, 
Sie  liessen  die  Kopfe  hanyen. 

Da  horten  sie  beide  die  traurige  Mar'  : 
Dass  Frankreich  verloren  gegangen, 
Besiegt  und  zerschlagen  das  grosse  Heer, — 
Und  der  Kaiser,  der  Kaiser  gefangen. 

Da  weinten  zusammen  die  Grenadier' 
Wohl  ob  der  klaglichen  Kunde. 
Der  eine  sprach  :  Wie  weh  wild  mir, 
Wie  brennt  meine  alte  Wunde  ! 

Der  andre  sprach  :  Das  Lied  ist  aus, 
Auch  ich  mocnt'  mil  dir  sterben, 
Doch  hab'  ich  Weib  und  Kind  zu  Haus, 
Die  ohne  mich  verderben. 

Was  schert  mich  Weib,  was  schert  mich  Kind  ! 
Ich  trage  weit  bessres  Verlangen  ; 
Lass  sie  betteln  gehn,  wenn  sie  hungrig  sind, — 
Mein  Kaiser,  mein  Kaiser  gefangen  ! " l 

There  is  still  another  side  to  Heine's  poetry  in  which  he  had  Sea-poetry. 
no  rival  among  German  poets,  his  understanding  for  the  sea. 
He  is  almost  the  only  German  writer  who  has  expressed  that 
fervid  delight  in  the  ocean,  which  echoes  through  the  poetry 
of  Greece,  Scandinavia,  and  England.  Heine  loved  the  fresh 
salt  air,  the  curling  waves,  and  the  long  sandy  beaches  of  the 
North  Sea  coasts  as  intensely  as  Eichendorff  loved  the  forest ; 
and  nothing  he  wrote  surpassed  in  beauty  of  expression  his 
full-sounding  lyrics  of  Die  Nordsee : — 

"  Thalatta!  Thalatta ! 

Sei  mir  gegriisst,  du  ewiges  Meer  ! 

Sei  mir  gegriisst  zehntausendmal 

Aus  jauchzendem  Herzen, 

Wie  einst  dich  begriissten 

Zehntausend  Griechenherzen, 

Ungliickbekampfende,  heimatverlangende, 

Weltberiilmite  Griechenherzen."  2 


1  E.  Elster's  edition,  i,  39  f.  2  Ibid.,  i,  179. 


5io 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Heine's 
cynicism. 


As  a  prose  writer,  Heine  exerted  a  hardly  less  abiding 
influence  than  as  a  poet.  His  style,  it  is  true,  is  often 
unbalanced  and  tastelessly  flippant ;  Romantic  "  Schwarmerei " 
and  wit  jostle  each  other  in  the  same  paragraph,  but  his 
prose  is  always  clear  and  concrete ;  his  touch  is  never 
heavy,  nor  are  his  sentences  unwieldy.  The  light  tone  of 
the  Reisebilder  or  Salon  was  better  adapted  for  the  ideas 
which  the  Young  German  School  had  to  express  than  the 
classic  prose  of  Goethe  or  Schopenhauer.  The  harshest 
accusation  that  can  be  brought  against  Heine  is  that  his 
satire  was  misplaced,  his  wit  cynical  and  even  gross;  many 
a  matchless  song  is  ruined  by  a  gratuitous  gibe ;  his  scoffing 
at  Christianity  is  in  bad  taste;  and  his  personal  attacks  on 
men  like  Schlegel,  at  whose  feet  he  had  sat,  or  on  Borne, 
who  had  been  his  friend,  are  beyond  all  defence.  But  at  the 
same  time  it  must  be  recognised  that  Heine,  as  few  other 
German  writers,  had  at  his  command  an  Aristophanic  wealth 
of  satire  and  cynicism,  which  only  expressed  itself  in  petty 
personalities  for  want  of  worthier  objects :  Heine  suffered  by 
living  in  an  age  when  there  were  no  great  causes  to  fight 
for.  And,  after  all,  he  was  a  fighter ;  it  was  no  vainglorious 
boast  when  he  called  himself  "  a  soldier  in  the  Liberation  War 
of  Humanity  "  : — 

"  Ich  weiss  wirklich  nicht,  ob  ich  es  verdiene,  dass  man  mir 
einst  mil  einem  Lorbeerkranze  den  Sarg  verziere.  Die  Poesie, 
wie  sehr  ich  sie  auch  liebte,  war  mir  immer  nur  heiliges  Spielzeug 
oder  geweihtes  Mittel  fur  himmlische  Zwecke.  Ich  habe  nie 
grossen  Werth  gelegt  auf  Dichterruhm,  und  ob  man  meine  Lieder 
preiset  oder  tadelt,  es  kiimmert  mich  wenig.  Aber  ein  Schwert 
sollt  ihr  mir  auf  den  Sarg  legen  ;  denn  ich  war  ein  braver  Soldat 
im  Befreiungskriege  der  Menschheit."  * 

This  "spirituel  Allemand,"  as  the  French  called  him,  had  a 
great  soul ;  he  combined  the  art  of  the  lyric  poet  with  the 
reforming  zeal  of  a  Hebrew  prophet.  It  was  the  irony  of 
Heine's  fate  that  his  opportunity  never  came. 

The  reputation  of  none  of  the  Young  German  writers  has 

KariGutz-    faded  more   rapidly  than    that   of  Karl   F.  Gutzkow,2  who, 

7gw>  l8        for  at  least  twenty  years  of  his  life,  was  the  most  influential 

writer  in  Germany.      Born  in    1811,   Gutzkow  was   brought 

1  Reisebilder,  3,  K.ip.  31  ( IVerke,  3,  281). 

2  Gesammelte  Werke  (novels,  &c.),  12  vols.,  Jena,  1873-78. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  51  I 

up  with  a  view  to  a  clerical  career,  but  the  July  Revolution 
sweeping  away  all  such  plans,  he  became  a  journalist.  An 
ironical  romance,  Maha  Guru,  Geschichte  eines  Gottes  (1833), 
attracted  a  little  attention,  and,  in  1835,  appeared  IVally,  die  Wallydie 
Zweiflerin,  a  book  which  not  only  excited  violent  indignation  Z™eifler*n* 
in  its  day,  but  even  cost  its  author  three  months'  imprison- 
ment. Besides  being  tinged  by  the  religious  scepticism  which 
found  its  most  characteristic  expression  in  the  Leben  Jesu 
(1835)  by  David  F.  Strauss,  this  novel  was  what  the  critics 
of  the  School  called  a  "glorification  of  the  flesh,"  and  it 
scintillated  with  that  superficial  wittiness  which,  ever  since, 
has  been  a  disagreeable  element  in  German  fiction. 

Gutzkow's  next  novel,  Seraphine  (1837),  into  which  he  wove 
a  love  affair  of  his  own,  did  not  meet  with  much  favour,  but 
Blasedow  und  seine  Sohne  (1838),  an  educational  story  in  a 
humorous  and  satirical  vein,  was  an  advance  on  anything  he 
had  yet  written.  In  fact,  Gutzkow's  reputation  rests  almost 
exclusively  on  books  published  after  the  Revolution  of  1848. 
Of  these,  Die  Ritter  vom  Geiste  (1850-52),  in  nine  volumes,  Die  Ritter 
was  a  starting-point  for  the  modern  social  novel  in  Germany,  *"?*  Gets/e> 
and  the  immediate  forerunner  of  F.  Spielhagen's  Problematische 
Naturen.  To  some  extent  Die  Ritter  vom  Geiste  anticipates 
the  literary  principles  of  the  later  French  naturalists,  Gutzkow's 
object  here  being,  in  the  first  instance,  to  paint  a  milieu  rather 
than  to  narrate  events. 

"  Ich  glaube,"  he  says  in  his  preface  to  the  novel,  "  dass  der 
Roman  eine  neue  Phase  erlebt.  Er  soil  in  der  That  mehr  werden, 
als  der  Roman  von  friiher  gewesen.  Der  Roman  von  friiher,  ich 
spreche  nicht  verachtend,  sondern  bewundernd,  stellte  das  Nachein- 
ander  kunstvoll  verschlungener  Begebenheiten  dar.  .  .  .  Der  neue 
Roman  ist  der  Roman  des  Nebeneinander.  Da  liegt  die  ganze 
Welt !  Dabegegnen  sich  Konigeund  Bettler  !  Die  Menschen,  die 
zu  einer  erzahlten  Geschichte  gehoren,  und  die,  die  ihr  eine  wider- 
strahlte  Beleuchtung  geben.  .  .  .  Nun  fallt  die  Willkiir  der  Erfin- 
dung  fort.  Kein  Abschnitt  des  Lebens  mehr,  der  ganze,  runde, 
voile  Kreis  liegt  vor  uns."1 

In  practice,  however,  Gutzkow  fell  short  of  the  ideal  he 
set  up  for  himself  in  this  preface.  Die  Ritter  vom  Geiste 
aimed  at  depicting  the  reactionary  period  that  followed  the 
Revolution,  but  Gutzkow's  picture  is  confused.  The  funda- 
mental idea  of  the  "Knights  of  the  Spirit"  who  were  to 

1  Vorwort  sur  ersten  Avflage,  ix. 


512 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Other 
novels. 


As  drama- 
tist. 


Zopfund 
Schwert, 
1843- 


Der 
Konigs- 
lieutenant, 
1849. 


oppose  the  misuse  of  political  power  was  characteristic  of  the 
age,  and  a  symptom  of  the  intellectual  tendency  that  gave  rise 
to  Freiligrath's  famous  mot,  "  Ueutschland  ist  Hamlet." l  But 
the  plot  underlying  the  nine  volumes  of  "  Nebeneinander "  is 
sensational  and  trivial,  and  recalls  the  "family"  novels  which 
had  flooded  the  book-market  from  previous  to  the  "Sturm 
und  Drang "  until  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Die 
Ritter  vom  Geiste  was  followed  by  Der  Zauberer  von  Rom 
(1858-61),  a  romance  of  German  Catholicism.  This,  how- 
ever, and  Gutzkow's  remaining  novels,  Hohenschwangau  (1867- 
68),  Die  Sohne  Pestalozzis  (1870),  Die  neuen  Serapionsbriider 
(1877),  show  a  steady  decline  of  power;  moreover,  the 
movement  in  German  fiction  which  Die  Ritter  vom  Geiste 
inaugurated,  and  to  which  we  shall  return  in  a  later  chapter, 
advanced  too  rapidly  for  Gutzkow,  and  he  was  soon  left  far 
behind. 

Although  Gutzkow  owed  his  position  in  literary  history 
mainly  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a  pioneer  of  modern  methods 
of  writing  fiction,  his  popularity  as  a  playwright  has  been 
more  durable.2  After  some  failures,  Richard  Savage,  a 
tragedy,  met  with  success  in  1838;  and  this  was  the  first 
of  a  long  series  of  plays  which,  although  deficient  in  finer 
poetic  qualities,  are  well  constructed,  and  written  in  an 
effective  and  not  unliterary  style  ;  several  of  them  are  still 
in  the  repertory  of  all  German  theatres.  Zopf  und  Schwert 
(1843),  which  takes  the  chief  place,  is  a  historical  comedy 
of  intrigue,  on  the  lines  made  popular  by  Eugene  Scribe; 
Friedrich  Wilhelm  I.  of  Prussia  and  the  members  of  his 
"  Tabakscollegium  "  are  drawn  with  admirable  humour,  and 
the  historical  colour,  without  being  particularly  true,  is  utilised 
to  heighten  the  effect.  So  much  can  hardly  be  said  of 
Gutzkow's  last  important  drama,  Der  Konigslieutenant,  which 
was  written  in  celebration  of  Goethe's  hundredth  birth- 
day (1849).  The  subject  of  the  play  is  taken  from  the 
third  book  of  Dichtnng  und  WahrJieit,  where  Goethe  de- 
scribes how  the  "  Konigslieutenant "  Thorane  (properly 
Thoranc)  was  quartered  in  his  father's  house  at  Frankfort. 
The  local  artists  whom  Thorane  gathers  round  him  are 
described  with  some  skill,  but  the  French  count  himself  is 


1  Freiligrath's  Gesammelte  Dichtungen,  3,  83. 

2  Dramatiscke  IVcrke,  20  vols.,  Jena,  1871-72. 


CHAP.  VIII.]        THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  513 

merely  a  theatrical  figure,  and  the  boy  Goethe  is  idealised  with 
a  complete  disregard  for  facts.  The  same  indifference  to 
actuality  is  to  be  seen  in  the  clever  comedy,  Das  Urbild  des 
Tartiiffe  (1847),  founded  on  an  incident  in  Moliere's  life. 
Lastly,  mention  has  to  be  made  of  Gutzkow's  only  success- 
ful effort  at  a  higher  form  of  drama,  Uriel  Acosta  (1847),  in  Uriel 
which  the  martyrdom  of  Spinoza's  forerunner  is  made  the  A£osta> 
basis  of  a  flaming  plea  for  "  Gedankenfreiheit."  The  play 
is  in  iambics  and  excellently  written,  but  the  standpoint  and 
spirit  of  the  conflict  are  too  exclusively  those  of  Strauss  and 
his  school  for  the  work  to  have  any  historical  value.  Gutzkow's 
death  took  place  in  1 8  7  8,  as  the  result  of  an  accident :  an 
overturned  candle  set  fire  to  his  bed. 

Heinrich    Laube1  (1806-84),   the   last   of  the   leaders  of  H.  Laube, 
"Young  Germany,"  and  five  years  older  than  Gutzkow,  was   l8o6-84- 
a  Silesian,  who  came  from  a  poor  and  provincial  home  and 
fought   his   way   to    the   front.       At    the    university,    Laube 
devoted  more  time  to  duelling  and  social  life  than  to  study ; 
but  the  theatre  attracted  him  strongly,  and  his  tentative  begin- 
nings as  dramatist  and  critic  met  with  encouragement.     In 
1832  and  1833,  he  published  two  volumes  of  essays  entitled 
Das  neue  Jahrhundert,  which  were  followed  by  the   first  of 
an  ambitiously  planned  series  of  novels,  Das  junge  Europa.  Dasjunge 
This  book,  which  bore  the  separate  title  Die  Poeten  (1833),   Europa, 
is  a  "  Tendenzroman "  in  letters,  and  discusses  the  advanced 
ideas  of  the  author's  time ;  but  the  story  is  only  a  succession 
of  gallant  adventures.     The  remaining  parts  of  the  work,  Die 
Krieger,  in  which  the  Polish  Revolution   occupies  the  fore- 
ground,  and  Die  Burger,   were   not    published   until    1837. 
Between  1834  and  1837,  Laube  wrote  six  volumes  of  Reisc- 
novellen,  an  attempt  to  carry  out  on  a  larger  scale  the  kind 
of  writing    Heine    had    made    popular    in   the   Reisebilder. 
Laube's  chief  work  of  fiction  was  Der  deutsche  Krieg,  a  cycle  Der 
of  no  less  than  nine  volumes  (1865-66),  depicting  with  un-  ^ut,3cftf 
deniable  grandeur  of  a  realistic  nature,  the  stormy  epoch  of  1865-66. 
the  Thirty  Years'  War.     In  Die  Bohminger  (1880),  his  last 
novel,  he  endeavoured  to  call  up  the  age  in  which  his  own 
youth  was  passed,  and    the   interest   of  the   book   depends 
mainly  on  the  freshness  of  the  author's  reminiscences. 

1  Gtsammelte  Sehriften,  16  vols.,  Vienna,  1875-82;  Dramatiscke  Werte,  12 
vols.,  Vienna,  1880-92. 

2   K 


THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Laube  as 

theatre 

director. 


His  plays. 


Die  Karls- 
sc  hitler, 
1847. 


Graf 

Essex, 

1856. 


T.  Mundt, 
1808-61. 


To  Laube,  as  to  all  writers  of  that  time,  Paris  was  an 
irresistible  centre  of  attraction ;  but  he  was  not  able  to  visit 
it  until  1839.  His  residence  in  France  was  of  special  im- 
portance to  his  subsequent  work  as  playwright  and  theatre- 
director.  On  the  first  of  January,  1850,  he  entered  upon 
his  duties  as  artistic  manager  of  the  Burgtheater  of  Vienna, 
and  with  this  appointment,  reached  the  goal  of  his  ambi- 
tion. He  remained  in  Vienna  until  1867;  a  couple  of  years 
later,  he  undertook  the  direction  of  the  Municipal  theatres 
in  Leipzig,  but  in  1871,  was  again  in  Vienna,  this  time 
at  the  head  of  the  new  "  Wiener  Stadttheater."  His  books 
on  the  theatre  (Das  Burgtheater,  1868;  Das  norddeutsche 
Theater,  1872;  Das  Wiener  Stadttheater,  1875)  are  valuable 
contributions  to  modern  dramaturgic  literature. 

As  a  playwright,  Laube  rivalled  Gutzkow,  and  even  his  first 
dramatic  attempts — such  as  the  unpublished  tragedy,  Gustav 
Adolf  (1829) — revealed  an  instinctive  knowledge  of  stage- 
requirements.  Mondaleschi  (1839)  was  a  drama  of  promise, 
but  his  name  did  not  become  known  before  the  production 
of  Struensee  (1847), a  clever  piece  in  the  manner  of  the  French 
dramatists,  to  whom  he  looked  up  as  unsurpassable  models. 
Laube  also  wrote  two  "literary"  comedies,  Gottschedund  Gellert 
(1845),  and  Die  Karlsschiller  (1847),  tne  latter,  a  play  which 
may  still  be  seen  on  the  German  stage.  The  subject  of 
Die  Karlsschiiler  is  Schiller's  flight  from  the  Karlsschule  in 
Stuttgart,  and  the  author  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
to  express  the  political  sentiments  of  his  School.  The 
piece  is  theatrically  effective,  but  full  of  a  vague  pathos, 
which  has  aged  more  rapidly  than  the  bourgeois  humour  of 
Gutzkow's  drama  on  Goethe's  childhood.  Laube's  ablest 
drama  is  Graf  Essex  (1856),  in  which  Queen  Elizabeth's 
favourite  is  drawn  with  real  psychological  insight.  The 
construction  of  this  work  is  solid  and  regular,  but  it  is 
in  verse,  and  verse  was  not  Laube's  strong  point;  he  could 
be  declamatory,  sententious,  epigrammatic,  and  witty,  but  he 
was  seldom  or  never  a  poet. 

Of  the  minor  writers  associated  with  the  school,  little 
need  be  said.  A.  Lewald  (1792-1871)  and  H.  Marggraff 
(1809-64)  were  no  more  than  journalists,  while  the  wit  of 
M.  G.  Saphir  (1795-1858),  a  Hungarian  Jew,  illustrates  to 
what  depths  could  sink  the  brilliancy  of  a  Borne  and  Heine. 


CHAP.  VIII.]       THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  515 

Theodor  Mundt  (i  808-61),  who  was  mentioned  in  the 
decree  against  the  School,  was  Professor  and  University 
Librarian  in  Berlin,  and  remained  practically  the  man  of  one  Madonna. 
book,  Madonna,  Unterhaltungen  mit  einer  Heiligen  (1835),  l835> 
which,  on  its  appearance,  created  an  extraordinary  stir.  This 
was  partly  due  to  the  doctrinaire  fashion  in  which  Mundt 
championed  the  "  Kinder  der  Welt "  against  the  "  Kinder 
Gottes,"  and  set  forth  the  Young  German  ideas  on  emanci- 
pation of  the  senses,  but  also  because  the  book  was  associated 
with  an  incident  much  discussed  in  the  capital.  A  Berlin 
teacher,  Heinrich  Stieglitz  (1801-49),  wno  had  published  four 
volumes  of  indifferent  poetry  (Bilder  des  Orients,  1831-33), 
believed  that  he  was  born  to  great  things,  and,  towards  the 
end  of  1834,  his  wife,  Charlotte,  killed  herself,  in  the  hope  Charlotte 
that  a  deep  sorrow  would  awaken  her  husband's  genius.  Stieslitz- 
After  Charlotte  Stieglitz's  suicide,  Mundt,  to  whom  she  was 
bound  by  a  Platonic  friendship,  wrote  a  book  about  her 
(Charlotte  Stieglitz,  ein  Denkmal,  1835),  and  it  is  evident 
that  she  also  sat  for  the  portrait  of  his  "  Madonna."  Neither 
Mundt,  however,  nor  his  friend  Gustav  Kiihne  (1806-88),  the 
author  of  numerous  stories  and  sketches,  had  much  talent 
or  distinction.1  Georg  Biichner  (i8i3-37),2  on  the  other 
hand,  is  still  remembered  by  a  powerful  drama  on  the  French 
Revolution,  Dantons  Tod,  which  was  published  by  Gutzkow 
in  1835. 

Between  1830  and  1848,  Goethe  stood  by  no  means  high 
in  his  countrymen's  favour ; 3  his  ideas  and  personality  were 
both  distasteful  to  the  Young  German  School,  although  only 
Borne  had  the  courage  to  attack  his  reputation.     But  to  dis- 
parage Goethe  was  also  a  natural  consequence  of  the  Hegelian 
philosophy ;  in  the  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Nationallitteratnr 
(1835),  for  instance,  by  G.  G.  Gervinus  (1805-71),  who,  him-  G.  G. 
self  a  disciple  of  Hegel,   constructed  his  book  according  to  Gervinus, 
his  master's  philosophy  of  history,  Goethe  is  not  spoken  of 
with  enthusiasm.     The  most  characteristic  expression  of  this 
antipathy  to  the  poet  is  to  be  found  in  the  writings  of  Wolfgang  w.  Men- 
Menzel  (1798-1873),  a  hot-headed  graduate  of  the  patriotic  «•!,  1798- 
student-clubs,  who  tilted  in  stormy  wrath,   not  only  against 

1  On  Mundt  and  Kiihne,  cp.  E.  Pierson,  Gustav  Kiihne,  Dresden,  1890. 

5  Sammtliche  Werke,  ed.  K.  E.  Franzos.     Frankfurt,  1879. 

3  Cp.  V.  Hehn,  Gedanken  iiber  Goethe,  4th  ed.,  Berlin,  1900,  156  ff. 


516  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

Goethe,  but  against  the  Young  German  coterie  itself:  it 
was  Menzel,  in  fact,  who  was  chiefly  responsible  for  the 
decree  of  1835.  While  most  of  this  author's  voluminous 
writings  are  forgotten,  his  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  (1824) 
has  still  some  value  as  an  example  of  the  form  then  taken 
by  German  patriotism,  and  his  Deutsche  Litteratur  (1827)  is 
an  interesting  document  of  the  literary  tastes  of  the  age. 

But   Young   Germany's   indifference   towards    Goet'he   was 
counterbalanced    by  the   warmth   of  the   Berlin  circle,   over 
which  Varnhagen  von  Ense  presided.     In  1834,  the  latter  had 
written  an  appreciative  memoir  of  his  gifted  wife,  Rahel,  ein 
Buck  des  Andenkens  filr  ihre  freunde,  and  in  the  following 
Bettinavon  year,  Bettina  von  Arnim  (ijS^-iS^g),1  Achim  von  Arnim's 
^rg'^'         widow,    published    her   first   book,    Goethes   Briefwechsel  mit 
einem  Kinde.     This   is  one  of  the  most  beautiful   books   of 
the   whole  German   "  Romantik,"  and    an    excellent  illustra- 
tion  of  the   unsophisticated    Romantic   temperament.      But 
enthusiastic  adoration  alone  could  not  have  raised  so  fine  a 
monument  to  Goethe's  genius;    Bettina  was  herself  a  poet. 
A   similar   delicacy   of  feeling   is  to  be  seen   in   her   book 
on   Karoline  von   Giinderode  (i78o-i8o6),2  Die   Giinderode 
(1840),   the   unhappy   poetess   and   friend   of  Wilhelm   von 
Humboldt,   who  killed   herself  in    1806.      In   a  later  work, 
Dies  Buck    Dies  Buck  gehort  dem  Konig  (1849),   Bettina   von   Arnim 
8Kbnig,  "' '    snowed  how  easy  it  was  for  the  warm-hearted   Romanticist 
1849.  to    champion    those    very  ideas   for  which   Young   Germany 

was  fighting.  Dies  Buck  gehort  dem  Konig  is  a  political 
book  of  liberal  ideas ;  it  was  wrung  from  Bettina's  senti- 
mental soul  by  the  sufferings  of  the  Silesian  weavers,  by 
the  oppression  of  the  lower  classes,  by  the  rise  of  indus- 
trialism, and  the  change  of  social  conditions, — and  all  this, 
in  naive  Romanticism,  she  lays  before  the  king — he  alone 
is  able  to  help  and  relieve.  Thus  Romanticism  could, 
at  this  late  date,  be  invoked  in  the  service  of  political  and 
social  reform. 

From  the  Revolution  of  1830  to  that  of  1848,  German 
literature  was  practically  dominated  by  Young  Germany;  but 

1  Sammlliche  Werke,  n  vols.,  Berlin,  1853.     Cp.  M.  Carriere,  Bettina  von 
Arnim,  Breslau.  1887,  and  M.  Koch  in  D.N.L.,  146,  i,  2  [1891],  441  ff. 

7  Cp.  L.  Geiger,  Karoline  von  Gundtrode  und  ihre  Frettnde,  Stuttgart,  1895. 


CHAP.  VIM.]       THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


517 


from  about  1841  onwards,  a  change  came  over  the  aims 
and  methods  of  political  literature.  The  vague  theoris- 
ing of  writers  like  Borne  yielded  to  definite  revolutionary 
principles,  and  the  "  Ritter  vom  Geiste,"  to  whom  Gutzkow 
looked  for  Germany's  political  regeneration,  gave  way  to 
blue  blouses  and  red  caps. 


Si8 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE     SWABIAN     SCHOOL. 

As  the  reader  will  have  gathered  from  the  preceding  chapters, 
the  most  natural  and  enduring  expression  of  the  German 
Romantic  spirit  was  the  lyric.  The  Romantic  drama  never 
gained  a  footing  on  the  national  stage,  and  soon  ceased 
to  be  more  than  a  literary  curiosity;  the  Romantic  novel, 
although  it  gave  a  stimulus  to  the  fiction  of  the  succeeding 
period,  had  little  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  younger  generation  ; 
but  the  lyric  remained  romantic,  even  after  Romanticism, 
as  a  creed,  had  lost  all  hold  upon  the  nation ;  and  it 
found  a  refuge  in  South  Germany  from  the  storms  of  the 
Revolution.  The  Swabian  poets,1  who  have  now  to  be  dis- 
cussed, were  virtually  the  heirs  of  the  "Romantik";  they 
carried  the  Romantic  traditions  across  the  uninspired  period 
of  political  journalism,  which  arose  under  "Young  Germany," 
and  kept  the  line  unbroken  between  the  first  leaders  of 
Romanticism  and  masters  like  Storm  and  Keller  in  the 
following  generation. 

The  acknowledged  head'  of  the  Romantic  circle  in  Wiir- 

J- L.  temberg  was  Johann   Ludwig  Uhland.2      Born  in    1787,  at 

1787^1862.     Tiibingen,  where  his  father  was  secretary  to  the  university, 

Uhland   showed,   as   a   boy,   unusual    talent,  and  was   early 

sent  to  the  university  to  be  trained  as  a  jurist.     The  rich 

stores   of  poetry   which    the    Heidelberg    Romanticists    had 

1  Cp.  R.  Krauss,  Schwdbische  Litter aturgeschichte,  2  vols.,  Freiburg,  1897- 
99.  2. 

2  Gesammelte  Werke,  ed.  H.  Fischer,  6  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1892;  also  by  L. 
Frankel,  2  vols.,   Leipzig,    1893.     A  critical  edition  of  the   Gedichte  by    E. 
Schmidt  and  J.    Hartmann,    2  vols.,   Stuttgart,    1898.     Cp.    K.   Mayer,  L. 
Uhland,  seine  Freunde  und  Zeitgenossen,  2  vols.,  Stuttgart,   1867,   and  H. 
Fischer,  L.  Uhland,  Stuttgart,  1887. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  519 

discovered  in  the  songs  of  the  people  and  in  the  nation's 
past  proved,  however,  more  attractive  than  law  to  the 
young  student.  Uhland  was  a  poet  before  he  was  twenty, 
and  one  or  two  of  his  finest  poems  —  Die  Kapelle,  Des 
Schdfers  Sonntagslied,  Das  Schloss  am  Meer — were  written 
as  early  as  1805.  In  1808,  he  contributed,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  the  Zeitung  filr  Einsiedler ;  two  years  previously,  he 
had  published  poems  in  a  "  Musenalmanach."  With  his 
poetic  interests,  Uhland  combined  a  strong  taste  for  the 
study  of  German  antiquity,  and  in  Paris,  where  he  went  in 
1810,  to  complete  his  legal  training,  he  spent  most  of  his 
time  in  the  National  Library  over  MSS.  of  medieval  poetry. 
During  his  student  days  in  Tubingen,  he  had  made  the 
acquaintance  of  two  poets,  who  were  subsequently  to  be  his 
fellow-workers — Justinus  Kerner  and  Karl  Mayer — and,  on 
his  return  from  Paris  to  Tubingen,  he  was  welcomed  by 
Gustav  Schwab  and  the  group  of  young  writers  of  whom 
Schwab  was  the  centre.  To  the  patriotic  movement  of 
1813-14  —  Uhland  was  at  this  time  an  assessor  in  the 
Ministry  of  Finance  at  Stuttgart  —  he  contributed  several 
stirring  Lieder,  such  as  Vorwarts  and  Die  Siegesbotschaft.  His 
radical  views,  however,  rendered  his  position  as  Government 
official  an  uncomfortable  one,  and,  with  a  view  to  acquiring 
more  independence,  he  became  an  advocate.  In  the  mean- 
time, he  had  induced  Cotta  of  Tubingen  to  publish  his 
collected  Gedichte  (1815),  the  success  of  which  suggested  Gedichte. 
the  possibility  of  making  literature  his  profession.  I8l5- 

On  the  establishment,  in  1819,  of  parliamentary  govern- 
ment in  Wiirtemberg  —  an  end  for  which  Uhland  worked 
heart  and  soul  —  he  began  to  take  an  active  interest  in 
politics,  but  his  Germanic  studies  were  not  neglected.  In 
1822,  he  published  a  Leben  Waif  hers  von  der  Vogelweide, 
and,  in  1830,  was  appointed  professor  in  the  university  of 
his  native  town;  three  years  later,  in  consequence  of  politi- 
cal conflicts,  he  was  obliged  to  resign  his  chair.  The  year 
1848  naturally  awakened  great  hopes  in  Uhland;  his  dream  of 
constitutional  liberty  seemed  at  length  on  the  point  of  being 
realised.  He  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Parliament 
which  held  its  sittings  in  the  Paulskirche  at  Frankfort,  but 
after  the  failure  of  the  political  movement  he  withdrew  from 
public  life,  and  his  last  years  were  occupied  with  those  studies 


520  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

in  early  German  literature 1  to  which,  throughout  his  career, 
he  was  more  faithful  than  to  poetry.  He  died  in  Tubingen 
on  the  1 3th  of  November,  1862. 

Uhland  proved  the  worthy  heir  of  all  that  was  best  in  the 
younger  Romantic  movement,  which  opened  his  eyes  to  the 
inexhaustible  poetry  of  the  "Volk,"  and  taught  him  to 
appreciate  and  love  the  historic  past  of  his  own  people. 
But  he  was  by  no  means  a  dreamy,  impracticable  Roman- 
ticist, whose  chief  thought  was  to  veil  the  prosaic  in  poetic 
mysticism;  his  political  interests  are  evidence  enough  to  the 
contrary.  He  had  a  singularly  clear  brain  and  a  deep  regard 
for  the  realities  of  life.  In  this  respect  it  would  seem,  indeed, 
as  if  his  work  were  the  beginning  of  that  revolt  against  Roman- 
ticism which  "  Young  Germany  "  completed,  and  it  is  not  sur- 
Uhiand's  prising  to  find  that  he  was  more  successful  as  a  ballad-singer 
ballads.  ^an  as  a  pOgt  Qf  feenngs  an(j  sentiments.  His  poetry,  it  is 
true,  contains  a  few  lyric  gems,  which  might  have  been 
•written  by  Eichendorff,  but  it  is  in  his  ballads  and  Volkslieder 
that  he  appears  a  master.  Among  the  finest  of  his  early 
ballads  are  Klein  Roland  (1808),  Roland  Schildtrdger  (1811), 
Konig  Karls  Meerfahrt  (1812),  Des  Sdngers  Fluch  (1814), 
and  the  cycle,  Graf  Eberhard  der  Rauschebart  (1815).  In 
the  restfulness  of  these  poems,  and  their  perfect  sense  of  fit- 
ness, there  is  something  that  recalls  Goethe's  classic  art.  Un- 
like his  Romantic  contemporaries,  unlike  even  Heine,  Uhland 
never  obtrudes  his  own  personality  upon  his  poetry :  he  is 
essentially,  as  D.  F.  Strauss  described  him,  the  "  Klassiker 
der  Romantik."  The  most  complete  idea  of  his  talent  is 
to  be  gained  from  Des  Sdngers  Fluch>  which  opens  with  the 
full-sounding  verses : — 

"  Es  stand  in  alien  Zeiten  ein  Schloss,  so  hoch  und  hehr, 
Weit  glanzt'  es  iiber  die  Lande  bis  an  das  blaue  Meer, 
Und  rings  von  duft'gen  Garten  ein  bliithenreicher  Kranz, 
Drin  sprangen  frische  Brunnen  in  Regenbogenglanz. 

Dort  sass  ein  stolzer  Konig,  an  Land  und  Siegen  reich, 
Er  sass  auf  seinem  Throne  so  finster  und  so  bleich  ; 
Denn  was  er  sinnt,  ist  Schrecken,  und  was  er  blickt,  ist  Wuth, 
Und  was  er  spricht,  ist  Geissel,  und  was  er  schreibt,  ist  Blut."2 


1  Schriften    sur    Geschichte   der  Dichtung  itnd  Sage,   8   vols.,    Stuttgart, 
1861-72 
a  E.  Schmidt  and  J.  Hartmann's  edition,  i.  306  ff. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  521 

As  a  poet  of  the  Volkslied,  Uhland  has  written  a  handful 
of  excellent  songs,  such  as  Abschied  ("  Was  klinget  und  singet 
die  Strass'  herauf?"  1806),  Der  gute  Kamerad  (1809),  Der 
Wirthin  Tochterlein  (1809)  and  the  fine  Trinklied  ("  Wir  sind 
nicht  mehr  am  erstem  Glas,"  1812),  all  of  which  are  worthy 
of  being  placed  beside  Heine's  Loreley  or  Eichendorff's  Zer- 
brochenes  Ringlein,  as  genuine  songs  of  the  people.  The 
following  is  Der  Wirthin  Tochterlein: — 

"  Es  zogen  drei  Bursche  wohl  tiber  den  Rhein, 
Bei  einer  Frau  Wirthin  da  kehrten  sie  ein  : 

'  Frau  Wirthin,  hat  Sie  gut  Bier  und  Wein? 
Wo'hat  Sie  Ihr  schones  Tochterlein?' 

'  Mein  Bier  und  Wein  ist  frisch  und  klar. 
Mein  Tochterlein  liegt  auf  der  Todtenbahr.' 

Und  als  sie  traten  zur  Kammer  hinein, 
Da  lag  sie  in  einem  schwarzen  Schrein. 

Der  erste,  der  schlug  den  Schleier  zuriick 
Und  schaute  sie  an  mit  traurigem  Blick  : 

'  Ach,  leljtest  du  noch,  du  scheme  Maid  ! 
Ich  wtirde  dich  lieben  von  dieser  Zeit.' 

Der  zweite  deckle  den  Schleier  zu 
Und  kehrte  sich  ab  und  weinte  dazu  : 

'  Ach,  dass  du  liegst  auf  der  Todtenbahr ' ! 
Ich  hab'  dich  geliebet  so  manches  Jahr.' 

Der  dritte  hub  ihn  wieder  sogleich 
Und  kiisste  sie  an  den  Mund  so  bleich  : 

'  Dich  liebt'  ich  immer,  dich  lieb'  ich  noch  heut 
Und  werde  dich  lieben  in  Ewigkeit.' 5>1 

As  a  dramatist,  Uhland  showed  little  talent ;  his  imagina- 
tion seemed  incapable  of  the  sustained  effort  demanded  by 
the    drama.       In    two    historical    plays,    Ernst   Herzog   von   Uhland's 
Schwaben  (1818)  and  Ludwig  der  Bayer  (1819),   he   made  dramas 
a  mistake  common  to  all  the  Romantic  dramatists,  of  con- 
fusing   the   province    of  the  drama  with   that   of  the   epic. 
But,  unlike  many  of  his  predecessors,  Uhland  does  not  allow 
the  lyric    element   to    encroach   unduly ;   and,   after  all,   the 
most  serious   defect  of  his   dramas   is  that  they  are  written 

1  E.  Schmidt  and  J.  Hartmann's  edition,  i,  176. 


522 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Vater- 

Idndische 

Gedichte, 

1816. 


J.  Kerner, 
1786-1862. 


without  knowledge  of,  and  without  due  consideration  for,  the 
technical  requirements  of  the  theatre. 

Uhland  and  his  Swabian  friends  were  "  epigoni,"  belated 
followers  of  the  classic  and  Romantic  traditions,  rather  than 
pioneers  of  a  new  period.  The  perfection  of  Uhland's  ballad 
poetry  is  that  of  classic  ripeness,  the  result  of  careful  work- 
manship and  calm  critical  judgment :  he  is  not  a  reformer, 
he  is  never  filled  with  the  desire  to  create  new  forms  of 
expression  or  to  win  new  ideas  for  poetry.  Indeed,  the 
only  interest  which  Uhland  did  not  share  with  his  pre- 
decessors was  that  in  politics :  his  Vaterliindische  Gedichte 
(1816),  although  now  forgotten,  were  the  forerunners  of  the 
political  poetry  of  the  following  generation.  For  ten  years 
of  his  life,  those  between  1819  and  1829,  Uhland's  poetic 
genius  seemed  to  lie  dormant;  then,  making  a  fresh  start, 
he  composed  the  fine  ballads,  Bertran  de  Born  (1829),  Der 
Waller  (1829),  and  Das  Gliick  von  Edenhall  (1834).  But 
after  this  brief  Indian  summer,  he  wrote  no  more ;  thus  his 
career  as  a  poet  was  virtually  a  short  one,  and  poetry,  instead 
of  being  the  main  business  of  his  life,  was,  his  first  youth 
over,  only  an  occasional  pastime.  Yet  notwithstanding  such 
restrictions,  he  towers  high  above  the  other  Swabians,  with 
the  single  exception  of  Eduard  Morike,  who  was  the  truest 
lyric  poet  of  them  all. 

Uhland's  immediate  comrade  in  arms  was  Justinus  A.  C. 
Kerner  (1786-1862 ).1  After  many  false  starts,  Kerner  re- 
solved to  devote  himself  to  medicine ;  he  studied  in  Tubingen, 
where  he  made  Uhland's  acquaintance,  and  where  he  spent 
more  time  and  thought  over  literature  than  over  medicine. 
But,  unlike  his  friend,  he  did  not  allow  poetry  to  distract 
him  from  his  chosen  profession.  In  1819,  he  settled  in  the 
little  Swabian  town  of  Weinsberg,  where,  in  later  years,  his 
hospitable  house  was  a  goal  of  pilgrimage  for  the  leading 
German  poets  of  his  time.  Kerner's  first  book,  Reiseschatten  : 
von  dem  Schattenspieler  Lux  (1811),  was  the  result  of  a  visit 
paid  to  Berlin,  Hamburg,  and  Vienna ;  and  the  Romantic  con- 
fusion of  poetry  and  prose,  seriousness  and  humour,  contained 
in  this  work,  gives  a  more  complete  idea  of  the  poet's  genius 

1  Ausgewdhlte  poetische  Werke,  2  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1878;  also  in  Reclam's 
Universal-Bibliothek,  3837-3858,  Leipzig,  1898.  Cp.  T.  Kerner,  /.  Kerners 
Briefwechsel  mit  seinen  Freunden,  2  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1897. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  523 

than  his  verse.  The  first  collection  of  his  Gedichte  appeared 
in  1826,  a  fifth  and  much  enlarged  edition  (Lyrische  Gedichte) 
in  1854.  As  Kerner  grew  old,  he  went  blind,  and,  in 
1851,  was  forced  to  give  up  his  practice.  He  died  in 
1862.  Like  Uhland,  he  learned  his  most  valuable  lesson 
from  the  Volkslied,  but  his  profession  brought  him  into 
closer  touch  with  the  people,  and  his  ballads,  although 
they  lack  the  fine  classic  polish  of  Uhland's,  are  sometimes 
more  genuine  Volkslieder.  Kerner  had  a  more  sensitive 
poetic  temperament  than  his  friend,  and  Romantic  mysticism, 
not  cool  objectivity,  formed  the  basis  of  his  talent;  often, 
too,  in  his  lyrics,  there  is  a  touch  of  melancholy  which  recalls 
the  Austrian  poet,  Lenau.  Although  smoothness  and  clear- 
ness of  expression  are  missing  in  Kerner's  writings,  these 
qualities  are  atoned  for  by  the  interesting  personal  note ;  he 
himself  had  experienced  the  truth  of  his  own  lines  on  Poesie : — 

"  Poesie  ist  tiefes  Schmerzen, 
Und  es  kommt  das  echte  Lied 
Einzig  aus  dem  Menschenherzen, 
Das  ein  tiefes  Leid  durchgliiht. 

Doch  die  hochsten  Poesien 
Schweigen  wie  der  hochste  Schmerz, 
Nur  wie  Geisterschatten  ziehen 
Stumm  sie  durch's  gebrochne  Ilerz."1 

Not  all  Kerner's  poetry,  however,  is  elegiac  in  its  tone ;  the 
most  familiar  of  all  his  songs  is  the  Wander  lied: — 

"  Wohlauf !  noch  getrunken 

Den  funkelnden  Wein ! 

Ade  nun,  ihr  Lieben  ! 

Geschieden  muss  seyn. 
.    Ade  nun,  ihr  Berge, 

Du  vaterlich  Haus ! 

Es  treibt  in  die  Feme 

Mich  machtig  hinaus."2 

In  1826,  Friederike  Hauffe,  a  peasant  woman  of  the 
neighbouring  village  of  Prevorst,  who  was  a  victim  to  som- 
nambulism, came  to  Kerner  to  undergo  a  magnetic  cure, 
and  although  he  soon  found  that  he  could  do  nothing  for  her, 
her  mental  condition  awakened  his  scientific  interest.  For 

1  Lyrische  Gedichte,  Stuttgart,  1854,  5. 

2  Ibid.,  165. 


524 


THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Die 

Seherin 
von  Pre- 
vorst,  1829. 


G.  Schwab, 
1792-1850. 


K.  Mayer, 
1786-1870. 


G.  Pfizer, 
1807-90. 


two  and  a  half  years  he  kept  her  in  his  house,  observing  and 
recording  her  mysterious  sayings  and  doings,  which  form  the 
contents  of  the  strange  book,  Die  Seherin  von  Prevorst :  Eroff- 
nungen  iiber  das  innere  Leben  das  Menschen  und  iiber  das 
Hereinragen  einer  Geisterwelt  in  die  unsere  (1829).  Through- 
out his  life,  Kerner  had  for  the  unseen  world  an  almost  morbid 
curiosity,  which  has  left  its  traces  on  all  his  writings. 

Another  of  the  circle  of  friends  at  the  University  of  Tubin- 
gen was  Gustav  Schwab  (1792-1850),  a  native  of  Stuttgart. 
In  his  character,  Schwab  was  an  exception  to  the  group  to 
which  he  belonged :  active  and  enterprising,  he  was  fond 
of  making  new  friends,  of  seeing  new  faces  and  visiting 
new  lands ;  he  had  something  of  the  North  German  love 
of  roaming.  His  literary  work,  for  which  his  pastoral  duties 
left  him  ample  leisure,  was  even  more  varied  than  Uhland's ; 
he  modernised  Rollenhagen's  Froschmauseler  (1819),  edited 
Paul  Fleming  (1820),  translated  Lamartine  (1826),  and  wrote 
Schillers  Leben  (1840),  besides  several  books  descriptive 
of  Wiirtemberg.  As  a  poet,  however,  he  occupies  a  sub- 
ordinate position;  his  verse  (Gedichte,  1 828-29)  x  lacks  in- 
spiration, and  is  often  merely  rhetorical.  Schwab  called 
himself  with  pride  Uhland's  pupil,  and,  had  it  not  been  for 
Uhland,  he  might  never  have  discovered  his  poetic  talent. 
One  of  the  few  poems  by  him  that  is  still  remembered  is 
the  student  song,  "  Bemooster  Bursche  zieh'  ich  aus  " ;  and  he 
is  especially  successful  in  his  Legends,  notably  the  Legende 
von  den  heiligen  drei  Konigen  (1827).  But  it  is  characteristic 
of  Schwab's  talent  that  his  most  widely  read  books  were  inter- 
pretations of  the  sagas  of  his  native  land  {Deutsche  VolksbiicJier, 
1835)  and  of  Greece  {Die  schb'nstcn  Sagen  des  klassischen 
Alterthums,  1 8  3 8-40). 2 

These  three  writers  form  the  inner  circle  of  the  so-called 
Swabian  School.  With  them  are  associated  a  few  others 
who  stood  in  more  or  less  close  relations  to  them.  Karl 
F.  H.  Mayer  (1786-1870)  had  a  reputation  for  his  nature- 
poetry,  but  his  talent,  although  genuine,  was  small,  and  the 
verses  of  Gustav  Pfizer  (1807-90)  are  deficient  both  in  spon- 
taneity and  lyric  feeling.  The  prodigal  son  of  the  Tubingen 

1  Ed.  G.  Klee.  GUtersloh,  1882.     Cp.  K.  Kltipfel,  G.  Schwab,  sein  Leben 
und  \Verken,  Leipzig,  1888. 

2  Both  works  edited  by  G.  Klee,  Gutersloh,  1894. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  525 

circle  was  Wilhelm  Waiblinger  (I804-30),1  a  remarkably  gifted  w.  Waib- 
writer,  who  unfortunately  was  cursed  by  that  lack  of  balance 
which  brought  so  many  of  the  Romantic  poets  to  a  tragic  end. 
Waiblinger,  at  least,  did  not  share  the  provincial,  homely  tastes 
of  his  comrades.  He  began  his  career  as  an  enthusiast  in 
the  cause  of  Greece  (Lieder  der  Griechen,  1823  ;  Vier  Erzah- 
lungen  aus  der  Geschichte  des  jetzigen  Griechenlands,  1826); 
and  in  Rome,  which  he  first  visited  in  1827,  he  made  a  scanty 
income  by  writing  sketches,  short  stories,  and  poetry  for 
German  publishers.  His  health  broke  down  under  the  strain 
of  his  restless  life,  and  he  died  in  1830.  The  novels  of 
another  Swabian  Romanticist,  Wilhelm  Hauff,  have  already 
been  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  general  Romantic 
movement ;  but  Hauff  was  also  a  poet,  and  several  of  his  songs 
{Reiters  Morgengesang,  Soldatenliebe)  have  become  Volkslieder. 
Unquestionably  the  greatest  lyric  poet  that  Swabia  ever  pro- 
duced was  Eduard  Morike,2  who  was  born  at  Ludwigsburg  in  E.  Mbrike, 
1804.  Morike,  like  his  friends,  did  not  make  a  profession  l8°4-7S- 
of  literature :  from  1834  on,  he  was  pastor  in  Cleversulzbach, 
a  small  village  in  Wiirtemberg,  until,  in  1843,  he  was  obliged 
to  resign  on  account  of  his  health.  Eight  years  later,  he  was 
appointed  teacher  of  German  literature  in  the  Katharinenstift 
in  Stuttgart,  where  he  remained  until  1866.  He  died  in 
1875.  Morike  was  not  a  voluminous  writer — his  collected 
works  are  contained  in  four  small  volumes — but  all  that  he 
wrote  bears  the  stamp  of  genius.  He  was  a  shy,  retiring 
man,  who  came  little  into  contact  with  the  world,  and  his 
lyric  genius  unfolded  itself,  free  from  all  disturbing  influ- 
ences. His  Gedichte,  collected  in  1838,  contain  a  handful  of 
poems,  such  as  the  cycle  Peregrina  (1824  and  later),  Jung 
Volker  (1826),  Das  verlassene  Madchen  (1829),  Agnes  (1831), 
Schon-Rohtraut  (1837),  Der  Gartner  (1837),  Soldatenbraut 
(1837),  Ein  Stiindlein  wohl  vor  Tag  (1837),  which  are 
numbered  among  the  masterpieces  of  German  lyric  poetry. 
The  peculiar  charm  of  these  songs  is  their  perfect  truth  and 
simplicity.  Morike  is  never  metaphysical  or  rhetorical;  he 
sings  of  unsatisfied  longing,  of  lost  happiness,  with  an  in- 
tensity that  is  suggested  rather  than  expressed ;  he  was  able, 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  3rd  ed.,  Pforzheim,  1859. 

2  Gesammelte   Schriften,    4   vols.,    Stuttgart,    1894.      Cp.    H.    Mayne,   E. 
Morike,  sein  Leben  und  Dichten,  Stuttgart,  1902. 


526  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

as  few  poets  since  Goethe,  to  penetrate  with  reverential 
delicacy  into  the  secret  hopes  and  longings  of  the  soul.  Das 
•ocrlassene  Mddchen  illustrates  these  characteristics  of  Morike's 

genius : — 

"  Friih,  wann  die  Hahne  krahn, 
Eh'  die  Sternlein  verschwinden, 
Muss  ich  am  Herde  stehn, 
Muss  Feuer  ziinden. 

Schbn  ist  der  Flammen  Schein, 
Es  springen  die  Funken  ; 
Ich  schaue  so  drein, 
In  Leid  versunken. 

Plotzlich  da  kommt  es  mir, 
Treuloser  Knabe, 
Dass  ich  die  Nacht  von  dir 
Getraumet  habe. 

Thrane  auf  ThrJine  dann 
Stiirzet  hernieder  ; 
So  kommt  der  Tag  heran — 
O  ging'  er  wieder !  " 1 

As  a  ballad-writer  (Die  schlimme  Gret,  1837  ;  Der  Feuerreiter, 
1847;  Der  Schatten,  1855),  Morike  does  not  rank  so  high; 
the  definite  conciseness  of  Uhland's  art  was  better  suited  to 
this  form  of  poetry  than  the  suggestiveness  in  which  Morike 
excelled.  His  "  Marchen  "  in  verse,  however  (Mdrchen  vom 
sichern  Mann,  1838),  and  his  Idylle  vom  Bodensee  (in  seven 
cantos,  1846),  contain  a  rich  and  unexpected  fund  of  humour. 
Morike's  most  ambitious  work  is  an  unfinished  novel, 
Maler  Maler  Nolten  (1832),  a  book  full  of  poetic  charm.  Maler 
1832!"'  Nolten  does  not,  it  must  be  admitted,  conform  to  the  modern 
conception  of  a  novel ;  it  is  formless,  like  so  many  Romantic 
books;  its  plot  is  fragmentary,  and  its  events  are  imagined 
rather  than  observed.  But  the  characters  are  drawn  with 
an  extraordinary  fineness  of  perception,  and  with  a  poet's  in- 
sight into  the  springs  of  human  action ;  the  reader  is  re- 
minded again  and  again  of  the  imaginative  flights  in  the 
early  Romantic  fiction.  An  imitation  of  Wilhelm  Meister 
and  the  novels  of  the  Romanticists,  Maler  Nolten  is  en- 
cumbered with  many  of  the  weak  elements  of  its  models : 
its  atmosphere,  for  instance,  is  provincial,  and  the  modern 
reader  is  more  wearied  than  entertained  by  allegorical 

i  Gedichte,  61. 


CHAP.  IX.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  527 

masquerades  described  at  length ;  but,  nevertheless,  Morike's 
story  is  a  landmark  in  the  development  of  German  fiction, 
standing,  as  it  does,  between  the  purely  Romantic  novel  and 
such  a  work  as  Gottfried   Keller's  Der  grune  Heinrich.     In 
1839,   Maler  Nolten  was  followed   by  a  volume  of  shorter 
stories,   among   which   was   the   charming    "Novelle,"   Lucie  Nmelien, 
Gelmeroth.     A  "  Marchen,"  Das  Stuttgarter  ffutzelmdnnlein,   l839' 
appeared  in  1852,  and,  in  1855,  ripest  of  all  Morike's  prose 
writings,  Mozart  auf  der  Reise  nach  Prag,  a  series  of  finely 
delineated  episodes. 

With  Morike  it  is  usual  to  associate  Hermann  Kurz  (1813-  H.  Kurz, 
73),1  who,  in  his  Gedichte  (1836)  and  Dichtungen  (1839),  l8l3'73 
helped  to  keep  alive  the  poetic  traditions  of  the  School. 
But  much  of  Kurz's  time  was  spent — from  circumstance 
rather  than  choice — in  translating  :  he  made  excellent  versions 
of  Orlando  Furioso  (1843)  and  of  Gottfried's  Tristan  (1844), 
the  close  of  which  he  wrote  himself  with  admirable  poetic 
tact.  As  a  novelist,  Kurz  was  the  author  of  a  number  of 
short  stories  and  two  excellent  historical  romances,  Schillers 
Heimathjahre  (1849)  and  Der  Sonnenwirth  (1855),  the  scene 
of  which  is  laid  in  Wiirtemberg  during  Schiller's  youth. 

Swabians,  too,  although  not  connected  with  the  School, 
were  the  religious  poet  F.  K.  von  Gerok  (1815-90),  whose 
Palmblatter  (1857)  became  a  household  book,  David  Friedrich 
Strauss  (1818-74),  the  author  of  the  Leben  Jesu  (1835-36),  and 
Friedrich  Theodor  Vischer  (1807-87).  The  last  mentioned  F.  T. 
was  Professor  of  ^Esthetics  in  Stuttgart,  and,  in  this  field,  X>isch|r> 
one  of  the  most  influential  teachers  of  his  time.  His  chief 
philosophic  work,  &sthetik,  appeared  between  1847  and 
1858,  but  he  is  best  known  to  literature  as  the  author  of  a 
humorous  and  satirical  novel,  Auch  Einer  (1879).  Vischer 
also  published  a  satire  on  the  second  part  of  Faust  (Faust, 
der  Tragodie  drifter  Theil,  1862),  a  collection  of  poems 
(Lyriscne  Gdnge,  1882),  and  several  volumes  of  criticism 
(Kritische  Gdnge,  1844-73).  All  his  writings  bear  the  stamp 
of  the  rugged  humour  and  straightforward  honesty  of  con- 
viction with  which  their  author  faced  every  problem  and 
difficulty.  He  was  an  admirable  example  of  a  writer  who 
faithfully  endeavoured  to  realise  Goethe's  words  and  live  "  im 
Ganzen,  Guten,  Schonen." 

1  Gesammelte  \Verkf,  ed.  P.  Heyse,  10  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1874-75. 


528  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

Thus,  whatever  the  poets  of  the  Swabian  School  might  be, 
they  were  not  innovators ;  they  only  completed  and  perfected 
what  the  Heidelberg  Romanticists  had  begun.  They  were 
none  of  them  men  of  strongly  marked  character  or  personality, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  a  group  of  equally  eminent 
authors  in  any  literature  who  have  regarded  their  work  in  such 
an  amateurish  spirit.  Not  one  of  these  men,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Kurz  and  the  unhappy  Waiblinger,  had  the  courage 
to  make  poetry  his  lifework :  they  were  doctors,  pastors, 
professors,  librarians ;  and  literature  was  consigned  to  their 
leisure  moments.  This  easy-going  groove,  into  which  they  all 
fell,  their  whole  attitude  towards  literature,  occasionally  com- 
bined as  it  was  with  a  narrow  orthodoxy,  set  the  mark  of 
parochialism  upon  their  work.  If  ever,  as  in  Uhland's  case, 
they  cherished  liberal  ideas  in  politics  or  religion,  these  were 
without  that  hearty,  youthful  optimism  before  which  alone  the 
world  yields.  Uhland's  character  and  nature  made  him  the 
appropriate  leader  of  such  a  school ;  he,  and  not  Morike, 
gave  the  movement  its  general  character. 


529 


CHAPTER    X. 

LITERATURE    IN    AUSTRIA;    GRILLPARZER. 

IN  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  conditions  in  Austrian 
Austria  were  unfavourable  to  the  growth  of  a  national  litera-  "terattire- 
ture.  While  in  Weimar,  Goethe  and  Schiller  lived  under 
an  enlightened  government  which  paid  literature  and  art  every 
respect,  the  writers  of  the  Austrian  capital  could  hardly  rise 
above  the  platitudes  of  ordinary  life,  without  coming  into 
conflict  with  an  autocratic  censor.  A  freer  literary  develop- 
ment might  have  been  possible  had  the  Austrians,  like  the 
Russians  of  a  later  date,  sought  outside  their  own  country  the 
liberty  denied  them  at  home ;  but  Austrian  literature  in  the 
first  half  of  the  century  was  too  exclusively  Viennese  to  bear 
transplanting,  and  the  Austrian  poets  preferred  to  suffer  in 
silence.  Only  one  art,  that  of  music,  had  complete  free- 
dom to  develop  in  Vienna  at  the  beginning  of  the  century ; 
here  Ludwig  van  Beethoven  (1770-1827),  a  native  of  Bonn,  L.  van 
found  a  congenial  home  and  encouraging  patrons ;  here  he 
composed,  between  1800  and  1812,  his  eight  Symphonies^ 
followed  in  1823-24  by  the  ninth  in  D  minor — works  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  modern  instrumental  music.  In 
Vienna,  too,  Franz  Schubert  (1797-1828),  the  first  master 
of  German  song  -  writing,  composed  his  countless  Lieder. 
The  strongest  proof  of  the  artistic  instincts  of  Austria  under 
Metternich's  tyranny  is,  however,  that  the  drama — the  form 
of  literature  most  exposed  to  the  interference  of  a  censor — 
should  not  only  have  lived,  but  flourished,  and  that  Vienna 
should  have  produced  in  Franz  Grillparzer,  the  greatest 
dramatic  poet  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  in   an  earlier   chapter,    the   Austrian    drama    lagged    far 

2  L 


530  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

behind  the  drama  in  North  Germany,  and  even  as  late  as  the 
last  quarter  of  that  century,  a  Viennese  public  still  listened 
to  the  pseudo-classical  tragedies  of  Ayrenhoff,  and  laughed 
at  harlequinades,  hardly  more  reputable  than  those  which 
Gottsched  had  banished  from  the  stage  in  Leipzig,  forty 
years  before.  The  first  attempt  to  create  a  serious  drama  was 
H.  J.  von  made  by  Heinrich  Joseph  von  Collin  (1771-1811  ),1  who  re- 
ITTI-'IBII  garded  the  theatre  from  Schiller's  standpoint.  Collin  began  as 
a  follower  of  Kotzebue,  and  although  his  best  works,  such  as 
Regulus,  performed  with  success  in  1801,  Coriolan  (1802), 
and  Bianca  della  Porta  (1807),  are  poetically  superior  to  any 
plays  of  Kotzebue's,  he  never  entirely  shook  off  a  tendency 
unduly  to  emphasise  the  sentimental.  In  the  general  char- 
acter of  his  tragedies,  Collin  aimed  at  a  compromise  between 
Schiller  and  the  ancients,  or,  more  accurately,  between  Schiller 
and  Ayrenhoff.  And  what  Collin,  who  was  also,  it  may  be 
noted,  the  author  of  a  collection  of  patriotic  songs  (Wehr- 
J.  Schrey-  mannslieder,  1809),  achieved  for  the  drama  in  Austria,  Joseph 
i°68-i8  2  Schreyvogel  (1768-1832)  did  for  the  theatre.  Schreyvogel 
wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  "West,"  and  his  Donna 
Diana  (1819),  a  version  of  Moreto's  El  desden  con  el  desden, 
is  still  frequently  played ;  but  he  is  now  chiefly  remembered 
as  the  first  successful  director  of  the  Hofburgtheater. 
FranzGrili-  Franz  Grillparzer2  was  born  in  Vienna,  on  January  15, 
1791^1872  T79T  >  ne  studied  law  at  the  university,  and,  in  1813, 
entered  the  service  of  the  state,  ultimately  rising  to  the 
position  of  "  Archivdirektor,"  from  which  he  did  not  retire 
until  1856.  The  even  course  of  his  life  was  little  inter- 
rupted: a  journey  to  Italy  in  1819,  another  to  Germany  in 
1826,  when  he  visited  Goethe  and  had  the  opportunity  of 
comparing  the  ideal  conditions  which  prevailed  in  the  little 
Saxon  residence  with  those  in  Vienna ;  a  visit  to  France  and 
England  in  1836,  and,  lastly,  one  to  Greece  in  1843 — 
these  were  the  chief  events  of  his  career.  Before  he  died, 
on  the  2ist  of  January,  1872,  he  had  had  a  share  of  the 
favour  and  recognition  which,  in  his  most  productive  years, 

1  Sammtliche  Werke,  6  vols.,  Vienna,  1812-14.  Q>.  F.  Laban,  H.  J.  von 
Collin,  Vienna,  1879,  and  A.  Hauffen,  Das  Drama  der  klassischen  Periode,  2, 
2  (D.N.L.,  139,  2  [1891],  261  ff. 

3  Sammtliche  Werke,  ed.  A.  Sauer,  5th  ed.,  20  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1892-94. 
Cp.  E.  Reich,  Fran*  Grillparzers  Dramen,  Dresden,  1894;  A.  Ehrhard,  Franz 
Grillpantr,  Paris,  1900  (German  edition  by  M.  Necker,  Munich,  1902). 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  531 

had  been  denied  him.  Grillparzer's  temperament  was  not 
a  heroic  one ;  he  endured  or  renounced  where  a  man  of  a 
stronger  personality  would  have  asserted  himself  and  rebelled ; 
he  was  deficient  in  that  moral  strength  with  which  a  poet 
like  Schiller  was  so  richly  endowed.  Grillparzer's  life,  in 
fact,  was  torn  asunder  by  that  conflict  of  will  and  circum- 
stance which,  in  his  dramas,  he  depicts  again  and  again.  His 
disappointments  lay  heaviest  upon  him  about  middle  life,  and 
his  diaries,  published  after  his  death,  reveal  to  what  depths  of 
despair  he  sank  in  the  decade  between  1825  and  1835.  But 
in  the  midst  of  his  misery  and  suffering,  he  wrote  his  finest 
lyric  poetry — poetry  which  gives  him  a  place  beside  Lenau 
among  the  modern  lyric  writers  of  Austria.  The  group  of  Lyric 
verse  which  bears  the  title  Tristia  ex  Ponto  (1835)  con-  P0611"?- 
tains  the  concentrated  history  of  Grillparzer's  life  during  this 
period ;  here  is  the  cry  for  an  inspiration  that  will  not  come, 
the  bitterness  of  disappointed  hopes,  and  the  mockery  of  a 
love  that  brings  no  happiness : — 

"  O  Triigerin  von  Anfang,  du  o  Leben  ! 

Ein  reiner  Jiingling  trat  ich  ein  bei  dir, 
Rein  war  mein  Ilerz,  und  rein  war  all  mein  Streben, 
Du  aber  zahltest  Trug  und  Tauschung  mir  dafiir." 

This  is  the  burden  of  all  the  unhappy  poet's  verses;  and 
for  him,  as  for  Lenau,  the  only  solution  to  the  problem 
of  life  is  a  pessimistic  renunciation : — 

"  Eins  ist,  was  altergraue  Zeiten  lehren 
Und  lehrt  die  Sonne,  die  erst  heut  getagt : 
Des  Menschen  ew'ges  Loos,  es  heisst  Entbehren, 
Und  kein  Besitz,  als  den  du  dir  versagt." 1 

Between    1807   and    1809,   Grillparzer   wrote  Blanka  von 
Kastilien,  a  long  iambic  tragedy  in  the  style  of  Don  Carlos, 
but  Die  Ahnfrau  was  the  first  of  his  plays  to  be  performed ;  Die  Ahn- 
it  was  produced  on  January  31,   1817,  and  received  by  the  frau>  I8l7- 
Viennese   public  with  enthusiasm.      Die  Ahnfrau^  in  which 
the  poet  gave  expression   to  his  own  "  Sturm  und   Drang," 
is  written  in  the  trochaic  metre  of  Milliner's  Schuld?  and  is 
itself  virtually  a  "fate  tragedy";  but  it  must  be  said  to  Grill- 

1  Werke,  i,  227  (Jugenderinnerungen  im  Griinen)  and  129  (Enfsagung). 

2  Cp.  J.  Minor,  Die  Ahnfrau  und  die  Schicksalitragedie  in  Fesigabe  fiir  R. 
Heimel,  Weimar,  1898,  387  ff.  ;  also  an  article  in  the  Grillparxcr-Jahrbuch,  9 
(1899),  i  ff. 


532  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

parzer's  credit  that  the  ghostly  "  Ahnfrau,"  who  watches  over 
the  house  of  Borotin,  is  surrounded  with  more  of  the  poetry 
of  horror  than  is  to  be  found  in  any  other  work  of  its  class. 
The  most  noticeable  feature  of  Die  Ahnfrau,  however,  is  the 
skill  with  which  it  is  built  up  ;  certainly  no  other  leading 
dramatist  of  the  world  has  begun  his  career  with  so  little  to 
learn  as  Grillparzer  in  the  art  of  dramatic  construction.  A 
few  months  after  the  production  of  Die  Ahnfrau,  he  completed 

Sappho,  his  second  drama,  Sappho  (1818).  Goethe's  Iphigenie  and 
Tasso  were  naturally  the  models  for  this  play,  while  the  subject 
would  seem  to  have  been  suggested  to  the  poet  by  Madame 
de  Stael's  Corinne  and  a  forgotten  tragedy  by  F.  von  Kleist.1 
Here  again,  the  mastery  of  Grillparzer's  technique  is  remark- 
able, and  as  striking  as  the  beauty  of  his  verse ;  out  of  the 
simple  theme  of  Sappho's  renunciation  of  Phaon  on  learning 
that  he  loves  her  young  slave,  Melitta,  Grillparzer  has  created 
an  impressive  tragedy,  classic  in  its  proportions,  and  inspired 
by  an  essentially  modern  ethical  idea. 

The  reception  of  Sappho,  if  not  as  warm  as  that  of  Die 
Ahnfrau,  was  not  discouraging,  and  Grillparzer  began  his 

Dasgol-  next  work,  Das  goldene  Vliess  (1820),  which  was  planned  as 
a  tr^°Sv>  w'tn  a  ^Snt  neart-  But  between  the  beginning  and 
the  close  of  this  trilogy,  life  assumed  a  different  aspect  for 
him ;  in  a  fit  of  insanity,  his  mother  put  an  end  to  her  life. 
This  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  poet,  who  himself  was  only 
too  prone  to  melancholy,  and,  for  a  time,  the  work  was  en- 
tirely neglected.  While  Der  Gastfreund  and  Die  Argonauten, 
the  two  first  dramas  of  the  trilogy,  were  written,  for  the  most 
part,  in  1818,  the  last,  Medea,  was  not  finished  until  the 
beginning  of  1820.  The  idea  of  the  Goldene  Vliess  was 
possibly  suggested  to  Grillparzer  by  Goiter's  melodrama, 
Medea  (1787),  which  was  played  in  Vienna  in  1817,  and  by 
Cherubini's  opera  of  the  same  name  (1792);  Grillparzer, 
however,  differed  from  his  predecessors  in  so  far  as  he 
dramatised  the  whole  story  of  Jason  and  Medea,  and  not 
merely  the  momentous  scenes  of  Medea's  life. 

Der  Gastfreund  is  a  brief  prologue  in  which  Phryxus, 
coming  with  the  Golden  Fleece  to  Colchis,  meets  his  death 
by  treachery,  at  the  hands  of  Medea's  father.  Die  Argonauten 

1  Cp.  J.  Schwering,  F.  Grillparzers  hellenische  Traverspiele,  Paderborn, 
1891,  14  ff. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  533 

describes  Jason's  quest  of  the  stolen  Fleece,  and  culminates 
in  the  tragic  conflict  between  Medea's  love  for  Jason  and  her 
duty  towards  her  own  land  and  kin.  In  Medea,  Grillparzer's  Medea. 
genius  was  first  revealed  in  its  true  proportions.  Wherever 
Jason  turns,  he  is  ridiculed  for  his  barbarian  wife ;  in  Corinth 
he  hopes  to  find  a  place  of  refuge.  Medea  buries  the  symbols 
of  her  magic  power,  and  resolves  to  subordinate  herself  to  her 
husband's  will.  But  the  curse  uttered  by  the  dying  Phryxus 
rests  upon  the  Fleece,  and  is  no  less  fatal  to  the  Argonauts 
than  was  the  curse  on  the  "  Nibelungenhort"  to  the  possessors 
of  that  treasure.  The  fundamental  idea  of  the  trilogy  might 
be  expressed  in  Schiller's  words : — 

"  Das  eben  ist  der  Fluch  der  bosen  That, 
Dass  sie  fortzeugend  Bo'ses  muss  gebaren. " l 

There  is  no  rest  for  Jason  and  Medea  even  in  Corinth.  Jason 
spurns  the  wife  he  has  learned  to  hate ;  even  her  children  flee 
from  her.  The  wild  spirit  of  the  barbarian  at  last  breaks 
forth  in  Medea;  she  slays  her  children  and  sets  the  palace 
of  the  Corinthian  king  on  fire.  In  the  closing  act  of  the 
tragedy,  she  bears  the  Fleece  back  to  Delphi,  and  takes 
eternal  leave  of  Jason  in  a  noble  monologue,  hardly  inferior 
to  the  farewell  in  the  Medea  of  Euripides  : — 

"  Erkennst  das  Zeichen  du,  um  das  du  rangst? 
Das  dir  ein  Ruhm  war  und  em  Gliick  dir  schien? 
Was  ist  der  Erde  Gliick  ? — Ein  Schatten  ! 
Was  ist  der  Erde  Ruhm  ? — Ein  Traum  ! 
Du  Armer  !     Der  von  Schatten  du  getraumt ! 
Der  Traum  ist  aus,  allein  die  Nacht  noch  nicht. 
Ich  scheide  nun,  leb'  wohl,  mein  Gatte  ! 
Die  wir  zum  Unglvick  uns  gefunden, 
Im  Ungliick  scheiden  wir.     Leb'  wohl  !"2 

Das  goldene  Vliess  is  the  finest  of  all  dramatic  versions  of 
the  Greek  saga ;  neither  Euripides  nor  Seneca,  neither  Corneille 
nor  Klinger,  has  brought  out  the  poetic  significance  of  Medea's 
life  as  clearly  as  Grillparzer.  In  many  respects,  too,  Das 
goldene  Vliess  fulfils  the  conditions  of  a  trilogy  better  than  its 
forerunner,  Wallenstein :  for  while  the  latter  is,  as  we  have 
seen,  essentially  one  long  drama,  introduced  by  a  prologue, 
the  constituent  plays  of  Grillparzer's  trilogy  are  independent 

1  Die  Picfolomini,  Act  5,  sc.  i. 
3   Wtrkc,  5,  228. 


534  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

of  one  another.  Indeed,  Das  goldene  Vliess  is  not  suffi- 
ciently homogeneous  in  style  and  character;  the  romantic 
elements  of  Die  Argonauten  harmonise  ill  with  the  classic 
severity  of  Medea ;  and  this  want  of  harmony  explains,  per- 
haps, why  Grillparzer's  work  has  never  succeeded  as  a  trilogy, 
although,  from  the  first,  Medea  was  recognised  as  a  tragedy 
of  the  highest  order.  The  suggested  comparison  with  Wallen- 
stein  brings  another  feature  of  Das  goldene  Vliess  into  promin- 
ence, and  that  is  its  essentially  modern  character.  Of  the 
naive  enthusiasm  of  Schiller,  there  is  nothing ;  like  Wagner's 
Ring  des  Nibelungen,  with  which  it  has  many  points  in 
common,  the  Goldene  Vliess  is  a  tragedy  of  modern  pessimism. 
In  style  and  form,  again,  it  foreshadows  the  naturalistic  litera- 
ture that  arose  in  France  on  the  decay  of  Romanticism : 
Grillparzer  describes  his  milieu  with  a  care  for  detail  that  is 
not  to  be  found  in  Goethe  or  Schiller,  or  even  Kleist;  the 
characters  of  his  personages  are,  as  it  were,  determined  by 
their  surroundings  and  expressed  in  the  rhythm  of  the  verses 
they  speak. 

The  years  between  1819  and  1822  were  the  most  active 
in  the  poet's  life ;  innumerable  plans  of  new  dramas — a  cycle 
of  six  from  Roman  history,  to  be  called  Die  letzten  Romer,  a 
Marino  f alien,  a  Herodes  und  Mariamne  —  were  sketched 
out,  and,  one  after  the  other,  thrown  aside.  Ultimately 
Grillparzer  turned  his  attention  to  the  historical  past  of  his 
own  land,  and  wrote  the  tragedy  Konig  Ottokars  Gliick 
Un^  End6*  which  was  played  in  1825,  after  a  protracted 
Ende,  conflict  with  the  Austrian  censor.  The  subject  of  the  drama 
l82S-  is  King  Ottokar  of  Bohemia's  vain  struggle  against  the  Haps- 

burgs ;  but  this  is  only  a  cloak  for  the  impressions  which  had 
been  left  on  Grillparzer's  own  mind  by  the  rise  and  fall  of 
a  mightier  than  Ottokar — Napoleon.  In  many  ways,  Konig 
Ottokar  marks  a  new  departure  in  its  author's  work;  com- 
pared with  Sappho  or  Medea,  it  presents  an  extraordinary 
variety  of  incidents  and  of  characters  :  in  fact,  the  historical 
realism  of  Konig  Ottokar  has  been  detrimental  to  its  success 
as  a  national  tragedy.  The  canvas  Grillparzer  chose  was 
too  broad  for  the  fine  detail-painting  of  his  picture,  and  his 
hero  is,  in  psychological  respects,  too  complicated  to  dominate 
the  action  as,  for  instance,  Shakespeare's  kings  dominate  his 
English  histories.  The  Hungarian  Bankban,  the  principal 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  535 

figure  in  Ein  treuer  Diener  seines  Herrn  (1828),  Grillparzer's  Eintrcuer 
second  historical  drama,  is  a  hero  after  the  poet's  own  heart :  Dl.ener 

J     S€l  tlCS 

in  Bankban,  he  embodied  the  idea  of  self-effacing  duty,  which  Herrn, 
had  attracted  him  in  Kant's  ethics.     It  was  hardly  to  be  ex-   l828> 
pected,  however,  that  an  audience  would  follow  the  history  of 
such  a  hero  with  sympathy  or  understanding,  and  consequently 
the  drama  is  seldom  to  be  seen  on  the  stage.     But  in  Des 
Meeres  und  der  Liebe   Wellen    (1831)    and  Der   Traum   ein 
Leben   (1834)   Grillparzer   produced  two  masterpieces  which 
belong  to  the  permanent  repertory  of  all  German  theatres. 

Des  Meeres  und  der  Liebe   Wellen   stands  in  the  foremost  Des  Meeres 
rank  of  modern  love-tragedies.      Once   more  in  this  drama,   un.dder 

^-,  MI  i  •  i  •  i-        Liebe 

Grillparzer  returned  to  the  classic  scenery  of  his  earlier  Weiient 
works,  and  this  time,  took  his  subject  from  Hero  and  l83x' 
Leander,  a  late  Greek  poem  by  Musaeus.  When  the  play 
opens,  Hero  is  about  to  take  the  vow  that  binds  her  for 
ever,  as  vestal,  to  the  service  of  Aphrodite.  The  solemn 
festival  begins,  but,  while  Hero  is  pouring  incense  upon  the 
altar  of  Hymenaeus,  her  eyes  meet  those  of  the  kneeling 
Leander,  who,  with  his  friend  Naukleros,  has  gained  access 
to  the  precincts  of  the  temple.  The  second  act  brings 
Hero  and  Leander's  first  meeting  in  the  grove  of  the  temple, 
and,  in  the  evening,  guided  by  a  light  in  the  window, 
Leander  swims  the  Hellespont  and  climbs  the  wall  of  Hero's 
prison.  Here,  in  the  most  beautiful  scene  Grillparzer  has 
written,  Hero  awakens  to  full  self-consciousness ;  subdued, 
restful,  harmonious,  this  love-scene  mirrors,  as  no  other  in 
modern  literature,  the  "  edle  Einfalt  und  stille  Grosse  "  of  the 
antique.  But  suspicion  rests  on  Hero ;  the  passion  which 
has  made  a  woman  of  her  and  converted  her  irresolute  lover 
into  a  man  of  action,  leads  to  recklessness.  On  the  following 
night,  Leander  again  attempts  to  swim  the  Hellespont;  but 
while  Hero  sleeps,  a  storm  extinguishes  the  guiding  light  in 
her  window.  The  waves  of  the  sea  triumph  over  those 
of  love,  and  Leander's  body  is  washed  up  on  the  shore. 
In  a  "Totenklage"  Hero  pours  out  her  grief,  then  sinks 
lifeless  on  the  temple  steps : — 

"  Nie  wieder  dich  zu  sehn,  im  Leben  nie  ! 
Der  du  einhergingst  im  Gewand  der  Nacht 
Und  Licht  mir  strahltest  in  die  dunkle  Seele, 
Auf  bluhen  machtest  all,  was  hold  und  gut, 


536  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

Du  fort  von  hier  an  einsatn  dunkeln  Ort, 

Und  nimmer  sielit  mein  lechzend  Aug'  dich  wieder? 

Der  Tag  wird  kommen  und  die  stille  Nacht, 

Der  Lenz,  der  Herbst,  des  langen  Sommers  Freuden, 

Du  aber  nie,  Leander,  horst  du? — nie  ! 

Nie,  nimmer,  nimmer,  nie  ! " 1 

Der  Grillparzer's  next  drama,  Der  Traum  ein  Leben,  although 

Jin*LeLn      not  finished  and  played  until   1834,  was  begun  as  early  as 
1834.  1817.     A  story  by  Voltaire,   Le  blanc  et  le  noir,  seems  to 

have  suggested  the  plot,  and  the  Romantic  setting  of  the  play 
was  borrowed  from  the  Spanish  drama.  But  here,  too,  as 
in  Konig  Ottokar^  the  overweening  ambition  of  Napoleon 
found  a  poetic  echo.  Rustan  is  a  country  lad  whose  desires 
and  ambitions,  like  those  of  Grillparzer's  typical  hero,  outrun 
his  power  to  realise  them.  Instigated  by  Zanga,  a  negro 
slave,  he  resolves  to  leave  his  uncle's  home  and  go  out  into 
the  world  to  seek  his  fortune.  But  night  descending,  he 
defers  his  departure  until  the  morrow.  In  the  night,  his 
wishes  pass  before  him  in  a  dream,  which,  from  this  point 
on,  becomes  the  reality  for  the  spectator.  In  his  dream, 
Rustan  takes  credit  for  saving  the  life  of  the  King  of 
Samarcand,  and  kills  the  man  to  whom  the  rescue  was  really 
due ;  he  rises  rapidly  to  the  highest  honours  at  court,  and 
the  king  ultimately  promises  him  his  daughter  in  marriage. 
But  his  deceit  and  crime  come  to  light ;  he  is  unmasked, 
and  has  to  flee  for  his  life;  ultimately,  he  plunges  into  a 
river  to  escape  his  pursuers,  and  at  this  critical  moment, 
awakens.  The  horrors  of  the  nightmare  are  swept  away  by 
the  rising  sun,  which  Rustan  thus  addresses : — 

' '  Sei  gegrusst,  du  heil'ge  Friihe, 
Ew'ge  Sonne,  sel'ges  Heut'  !  .  .   . 
Breit'  es  aus  mit  deinen  Strahlen, 
Senk'  es  tief  in  jede  Brust : 
Eines  nur  ist  Gluck  hiernieden, 
Eins  :  des  Innern  stiller  Frieden 
Und  die  schuldbefreite  Brust ! 
Und  die  Grosse  ist  gefahrlich, 
Und  der  Ruhm  ein  leeres  Spiel ; 
Was  er  giebt,  sind  nicht'ge  Schatten, 
Was  er  nimmt,  es  ist  zu  viel ! "  2 

"  Des    Innern   stiller    Frieden,"   the   peace    of    soul    that 
knows  neither  ambition  nor  sense  of  guilt  —  this  was  Grill- 

1  Werke,  7,  101.  2  Ibid.,  7,  214  f. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  537 

parzer's  ideal  in  life  as  in  poetry.  The  nothingness  of  fame, 
of  happiness  and  love,  is  the  burden  of  all  his  plays ;  renunci- 
ation is  to  him  the  noblest  form  of  heroism,  contentment  the 
highest  virtue. 

Three  and  a  half  years  after  Der  Traum  ein  Leben,  Grill- 
parzer's only  comedy,  WeK  dem,  der  liigt  (1838),  was  played  in  WeK  dem, 
Vienna  and  failed,  and  this  failure  cost  Austria  dear  :  dis-  d^J"gt> 
heartened  and  embittered,  her  greatest  dramatic  poet  made 
no  further  attempts  to  win  the  applause  of  the  theatre. 
Long  since,  it  is  true,  not  only  Vienna,  but  every  other 
German-speaking  capital,  has  made  ample  amends  for  the 
fiasco  of  WeK  dem,  der  liigt,  which  is  now  universally  recog- 
nised as  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  modern  comedy;  but 
recognition  came  too  late  in  Grillparzer's  life  to  tempt  him 
to  write  again  for  the  stage.  Leon,  the  hero  of  WeK  dem, 
der  liigt,  is  a  cook  in  the  service  of  Bishop  Gregory,  and 
sallies  forth  from  Tours  into  the  land  of  the  barbarian  to 
rescue  the  bishop's  nephew.  By  the  very  force  of  the  truth 
— for  his  master  will  not  allow  him  to  tell  a  single  lie — 
he  outwits  the  barbarian  and  achieves  his  object,  all  of 
which  is  told  with  an  inimitable  verve  and  humour,  and 
revealed  an  unsuspected  side  of  the  dramatist's  genius. 

Grillparzer  wrote  three  other  plays,  Libussa,  Ein  Bruder-  Other 
zwist  in  Habsburg  and  Die  Jildin  von  Toledo,  which  were  not,  Plays- 
however,  published  until  after  his  death  (1872),  while  a 
beautiful  fragment  of  a  Biblical  drama,  Esther,  appeared  in 
1863.  The  first  of  these,  Libussa,  is  based  on  the  Volks- 
buch  which  tells  of  the  mythical  foundation  of  Prague,  and 
is,  as  a  dramatic  poem,  although  not  as  a  play  for  the  stage, 
one  of  Grillparzer's  best  works.  Ein  Bruderzwist  in  Habs- 
burg is  a  historical  tragedy  and  Die  Judin  von  Toledo  a 
brilliant  adaptation  of  Lope  de  Vega's  drama,  Las  Pazes  de 
los  Reyes  y  Judia  de  Toledo  ;  but  of  the  three,  only  Die  Jildin 
von  Toledo  has  won  a  permanent  place  in  the  repertory  of  the 
national  theatre.  Grillparzer  was  also  the  author  of  two  short 
stories,  Das  Kloster  bei  Sendomir  (1828)  and  Der  arme  Spiel- 
mann  (1848),  the  latter  the  delicate  study  of  a  musician, 
written  directly  from  the  poet's  own  heart.  As  a  critic,  his 
most  important  writings  are  devoted  to  the  Spanish  dramatists 
(Studien  zum  spanischen  Theater),  to  whom  by  temperament 
he  was  closely  allied.  How  thoroughly  he  entered  into  the 


538 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


E.  F.  J.  von 

Miinch- 

Belling- 

hausen 

("F. 

Halm  "), 

1806-71. 


E.  von 
Bauern- 
feld,  1802- 
90. 


The 

Viennese 

"Posse." 


spirit  of  Spanish  literature  may  be  seen  from  his  appreciation 
of  Lope  de  Vega,  a  poet  whom  the  Romantic  critics,  in  their 
admiration  for  Calderon,  had  unjustly  depreciated.1 

Grillparzer  stands  alone  among  the  dramatic  writers  of  the 
century;  he  had  neither  contemporaries  nor  successors  who, 
even  in  a  remote  degree,  could  be  compared  with  him.  In 
popularity,  however,  he  was  surpassed  by  his  fellow-country- 
man, E.  F.  J.  von  Munch- Bellinghausen  (1806-71),  who 
wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  Friedrich  Halm.2  Halm's 
Griseldis  (1834),  Der  Sohn  der  Wildnis  (1842)  and  Der 
Fechter  von  Ravenna  (1854),  were  once  favourite  plays  in 
all  German  theatres,  but  they  have  small  literary  worth.  Their 
success  was  mainly  due  to  Halm's  skill  in  dramatising  the 
ideas  brought  into  vogue  by  the  Young  German  School ; 
these  plays  had  an  "actual"  interest  for  his  contemporaries. 
But  Halm's  talent  was  often  theatrical  rather  than  dramatic, 
and  his  language  and  style  were  sentimental.  At  the  same 
time,  he  was  a  worthier  representative  of  the  Austrian  drama 
at  the  middle  of  the  century  than  the  once  popular  play- 
wright, S.  H.  von  Mosenthal  (1821-77),  author  of  a  favourite 
"  Volksschauspiel,"  Deborah  (1849). 

A  writer  of  finer,  although  more  limited,  talent  than  Halm 
was  Eduard  von  Bauernfeld  (1802-90),  a  native  of  Vienna.3 
Bauernfeld's  comedies  owe  much  both  to  Kotzebue  and  to 
French  models ;  they  are  marred  by  trivialities,  and  bon  mots 
frequently  take  the  place  of  ideas ;  but  the  characters  of  the 
plays  are  delicately  outlined,  and  the  picture  given  of  the 
higher  Austrian  society  of  the  author's  time  is  tolerably 
faithful.  Besides  familiar  pieces  like  Die  Bekenntnisse  (1834) 
and  Biirgerlich  und  Romantisch  (1835),  which  depend  for 
their  attractiveness  on  their  witty  dialogue,  Bauernfeld  wrote, 
at  least,  one  comedy  of  the  first  order,  Aus  der  Gesellschaft 
(1866),  a  play  which  may  be  compared  with  the  best  French 
dramas  of  the  time. 

The  Viennese  "  Posse  "  of  the  earlier  half  of  the  century  was 
similar  to  the  older  English  pantomime ;  both  had  retained 
the  characteristics  of  the  Italian  commedia  dell'  arte,  from 
which  they  were  derived,  and  both  were  purely  popular  forms 

1  Cp.  A.  Farinelli,  Grillparzer  und  Lope  de  Vega,  Berlin,  1894,  194  ff. 

2  F.  Halm's  Werke,  12  vols.,  Vienna,  1850-73. 

*  Gesammelte  Schrt/ten,  10  vols.,  Vienna,  1871-72.  Cp.  E.  Horner,  Bauern- 
feld, Leipzig,  1900. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  539 

of  entertainment.  The  humour  of  the  "  Posse  "  was  a  humour 
of  situation  and  local  allusions,  a  favourite  comic  effect  being 
to  place  the  ordinary  citizen  of  Vienna  amidst  the  incongruous 
surroundings  of  fairyland.  Such  was  the  "Posse"  as  cul- 
tivated by  J.  A.  Gleich  (1772-1841),  Karl  Meisl  (1775- 
*%53)>  J-  F.  Castelli  (1781-1862),  and  Adolf  Bauerle  (1784- 
1859),  and  Schikaneder's  Die  Zauberfldte(\i^o)^  which  inspired 
Mozart's  noblest  music,  was  also,  as  has  been  seen,  essentially 
a  Viennese  "Posse."  Between  Die Zauberflote  and  Raimund's  F.  Rai- 
first  play,  Der  Barometermacher  auf  der  Zauberinsel  (1823),  ™und'g  6 
however,  this  class  of  drama  made  little  progress.  Ferdinand 
Raimund  (i 790-1836) x  is  an  even  more  tragic  figure  than 
Grillparzer  in  the  literary  history  of  Austria.  As  a  favourite 
comic  actor  in  a  suburban  theatre,  he  naturally  found  little 
opportunity  to  develop  his  genius  for  the  serious  drama — 
and  yet  no  writer  ever  made  such  an  astounding  advance  as 
that  from  the  Barometermacher  to  Der  Bauer  als  Millionar 
(1826),  Der  Alpenkonig  und  der  Menschenfeind  (1828),  and 
Der  Verschwender  (1833).  But  Raimund,  not  easily  satisfied, 
aspired  still  higher,  and  when  the  fickle  public  transferred 
its  favour  to  his  younger  rival,  Johann  Nestroy,  he  sank  into 
a  melancholy  to  which,  like  Grillparzer,  he  always  had  a 
tendency,  and  shot  himself  at  the  age  of  forty-six.  The 
value  of  Raimund's  writings  does  not  lie  in  their  wit;  it  is 
rather  to  be  sought  in  scenes  such  as  that  of  the  coming  of 
"Youth"  and  "Age"  to  the  hero  of  Der  Bauer  als  Milliondr, 
where  a  poetic  idea  has  to  be  expressed  by  a  concrete  image. 
Der  Alpenkonig  und  der  Menschenfeind  is  Raimund's  master- 
piece and  the  best  German  comedy  of  its  time.  The  hero  of 
this  play,  the  misanthropic  Rappelkopf,  is  worthy  of  Moliere ; 
and  the  "Alpenkonig,"  who,  in  order  to  cure  him,  imper- 
sonates him,  while  Rappelkopf  himself  looks  on,  is  a  very 
different  figure  from  the  fantastic  genii  which  appeared  in 
the  "  Posse."  Another  characteristic  of  Raimund's  genius  was 
the  affectionate  sympathy  with  which  he  dwelt  upon  the  life 
of  the  "Volk";  their  joys  and  troubles  he  described  with 
a  naive  pathos  and  a  truth  to  nature,  which  entitle  him  to 
be  regarded  as  a  pioneer  of  the  peasant-literature  of  the  next 
generation. 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  ed.  by  K.  Glossy  and  A.  Sauer,  3  vols.,  2nd  ed., 
Vienna,  1891.     Cp.  E.  Schmidt,  Charakterhtiken,  i,  Berlin,  1886,  381  ff. 


540 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


J.  Nestroy,  A  witty  and  cynical  satirist,  Johann  Nestroy  (iSoi-62),1 
1801-62.  was  a  compiete  antithesis  to  Raimund,  who  had  little  reason 
to  take  Nestroy's  rivalry  to  heart.  Only  in  a  few  of  his 
earliest  farces,  such  as  Der  bose  Geist  Lumpacivagabundus 
oder  das  liederliche  Kleeblatt  (1833),  did  the  latter  encroach 
on  the  fairy  drama  which  Raimund  had  done  so  much  to 
spiritualise.  Of  all  Nestroy's  pieces,  Lumpacivagabundus, 
it  is  true,  is  the  most  popular  and  widely  known,  but 
his  genius  is  seen  to  much  greater  advantage  in  the  later 
farces,  Das  Mddl  aus  der  Vorstadt  (1841),  Einen  Jux 
will  er  sich  machen  (1842),  and  Kampl  (1852).  Not  even 
in  France  has  the  invention  of  comic  situations  been  com- 
bined with  such  skilful  character-drawing  as  in  these  plays ; 
Nestroy  appears  here  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  farce-writers 
in  European  literature. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  lyric  poetry 
developed  in  Austria  under  the  influence  of  two  dominant 
forces,  the  Romantic  traditions,  as  represented  by  the  Swabian 
School,  and  the  political  feeling  which,  between  1830  and  1848, 
was  even  more  intense  in  South  than  in  North  Germany. 
But  there  were  also  poets  who  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  cry 
for  freedom,  and  were  susceptible  only  to  the  first  of  these 
influences.  Of  these,  the  chief  was  J.  C.  von  Zedlitz  (1790- 
i862),2  who,  as  a  dramatist  {Der  Stern  von  Sevilla,  1830; 
Kerker  und  Krone,  1834),  endeavoured  with  little  success  to 
follow  in  Grillparzer's  footsteps,  but  as  a  lyric  and  ballad 
poet,  revealed  an  originality  which  has  been  somewhat  unduly 
overshadowed  by  the  genius  of  Griin  and  Lenau.  Zedlitz's 
most  famous  work  is  the  Todtenkranze  (i82y),3  a  collection 
of  noble  threnodies  at  the  graves  of  great  personalities, 
Wallenstein  and  Napoleon,  Petrarch  and  Laura,  Tasso  and 
Byron,  Romeo  and  Juliet.  The  metrical  form  of  these 
poems  is  the  Italian  canzone,  which  Zedlitz  handled  with 
dexterity;  in-  this  respect,  the  Todtenkranze  may  be  classed 
with  the  experiments  made  by  the  Romantic  School,  in  adapt- 
ing German  verse  to  Romance  forms.  Many  of  Zedlitz's 
ballads,  such  as  the  famous  Ndchtliche  Heerschau,  in  which 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  ed.  V.  Chiavacci  and  L.  Ganghofer,  12  vols.,  Stutt- 
gart, 1890-91. 

2  Dramatische  Werke,  4  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1860;  Gedichte,  6th  ed.,  Stuttgart, 
1859. 

8  Gedichte,  323  ff. 


J.  C.  von 

Zedlitz, 

1790-1862. 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  54! 

Napoleon  reviews  his  fallen  heroes,  are  not  inferior  to   Uh- 
land's. 

The  most  vital  Austrian  poetry  of  this  epoch,  however, 
was  political  in  tendency;  its  burden  was  a  passionate  crav- 
ing for  freedom  from  the  tyranny  of  the  Metternich  regime. 
The  leading  political  poet  was  Graf  Anton  Alexander  von 
Auersperg,  better  known  by  his  pseudonym  of  Anastasius  Griin  A.  Grun, 
( 1 806-7 6).1  As  a  lyric  poet,  Griin  is  inferior  to  Zedlitz,  and,  I8o6'76- 
for  a  writer  of  such  genius,  has  contributed  surprisingly  little 
to  the  storehouse  of  German  song.  His  importance  for  the 
development  of  Austrian  literature  depends,  not  on  his  lyric 
poetry,  of  which  one  collection  (Bliitter  der  Liebe)  appeared  in 
1830,  another  (Gedichte)  in  1837,  but  on  his  influence  as  an 
agitator.  His  Spaziergiinge  eines  Wiener  Poeten  (1831),  which, 
on  its  appearance,  was  eagerly  read  by  all  classes,  is  a  frank 
declaration  of  the  poet's  liberalism,  and  a  challenge  to  the 
autocratic  oppressors  of  Austria.  The  earnestness  of  Griin's 
political  aims  is  tempered  by  a  genial  humour,  akin  to  that  of 
Uhland,  who  was  clearly  his  model  in  Der  letzte  Ritter  (1830), 
a  romance  of  Maximilian  I.  in  the  style  of  the  Nibelungenlied  ; 
occasionally,  too,  as  in  Schutt  (1835),  Griin  gives  rein  to  a 
pungent  wit  that  recalls  Heine. 

A  poet  of  a  very  different  type  from  Griin  is  Nikolaus  N.  Lenau, 
Lenau,2  or,  with  his  full  name,  Nikolaus  Franz  Niembsch  von  l8°2-5°- 
Strehlenau.  Born  at  Csatad  in  Hungary  in  1802,  Lenau 
passed  a  checkered  and  unhappy  youth.  Owing  to  the  gen- 
erosity of  his  grandfather,  he  was  enabled  to  attend  the 
University  of  Vienna,  but  from  his  studies  there  he  seemed 
to  gain  little  positive  advantage.  In  1832,  he  came  into  con- 
tact with  the  poets  of  the  Swabian  School,  and,  with  their 
assistance,  published  his  first  volume  of  Gedichte  (1832). 
The  vivid  scenes  of  a  peasant-life  new  to  German  literature, 
which  these  poems  described,  the  fresh  breath  they  brought 
from  the  pustas  of  Hungary,  at  once  attracted  the  attention 
of  Lenau's  contemporaries.  But  the  tone  of  melancholy,  of 
religious  doubt  and  pessimistic  discontent,  which  runs  through 
all  his  work,  had  already  begun  to  show  itself;  he  sings  of 

1  Gesammelte  IVerke,  ed.  L.  A.  Frankl,  5  vols.,  Berlin,  1877. 

2  Sdmmtliche  Werke,  ed.  E.  Hepp,  2  vols.,  Leipzig,   1882,  and  M.   Koch, 
2  vols.  (D.N.L.,  154,  155  [1888]).     Cp.  A.  X.  Rchurz,  Lenau's  Leben,  2  vols., 
Stuttgart,  1855,  nnd  L.  Roustnn,  Lenau  et  son  temps,  Paris,  1898. 


542 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


In 
America. 


Faust, 
1836. 


spring,  it  is  true,  but  the  elegiac  mood  of  the  autumn  is 
dearest  to  him  : — 

"Triibe  Wolken,  Herbstesluft, 
Einsam  wandl'  ich  meine  Strassen, 
Welkes  Laub,  kein  Vogel  ruft, 
Ach,  wie  stille  !  wie  verlassen  ! 

Todeskiihl  der  Winter  naht ; 
Wo  sind,  Walder,  cure  Wonnen? 
Fluren,  eurer  vollen  Saat 
Goldne  Wellen  sind  veronnen  ! 

Es  ist  worden  kiihl  und  spat, 
Nebel  auf  der  Wiese  weidet ; 
Durch  die  oden  Haine  weht 
Heimweh ; — alles  flieht  und  scheidet." l 

Lenau  was  one  of  those  unhappy  natures  in  which  German 
literature  is  so  rich,  natures  for  whom  existence  remains  an 
eternal  enigma.  The  freedom  which  he  could  not  find  in 
Austria,  he  sought  in  North  America — 

"  Du  neue  Welt,  du  freie  Welt, 
An  deren  bluthenreichem  Strand 
Die  Fluth  der  Tyrannei  zerschellt : 
Ich  grvisse  dich,  mein  Vaterland  !  "2 — 

and  an  echo  of  Chateaubriand's  delight  in  the  red  man,  which 
may  be  heard  in  all  European  literatures  during  the  first  half 
of  the  century,  is  present  in  poems  like  Der  Indianerzug, 
Das  Blockhaus,  Niagara.  But  the  "land  of  freedom"  was 
a  disappointment  —  "  Es  ist  ein  Land  voll  traumerischem 
Trug"3 — and  Lenau  returned  to  Europe.  For  the  follow- 
ing ten  years,  he  lived,  first  in  Vienna,  then  in  Wiirtemberg, 
and,  in  1846,  when  his  life  seemed  on  the  point  of  becom- 
ing happier  and  more  hopeful,  he  suddenly  went  insane. 
After  spending  five  years  in  an  asylum,  he  died  in  1850. 
Of  Lenau's  longer  works,  the  first  was  an  epic  drama,  Faust 
(1836),  into  which  he  poured  his  own  doubts,  his  scepticism 
and  despair.  His  genius,  however,  was  essentially  lyric,  and 
he  succeeded  indifferently  in  epic  or  drama — only  in  so  far 
as  Faust  is  lyric,  does  it  appeal  to  us.  And  the  same  is 
true  of  the  pessimistic  poems,  Savonarola  (1837)  and  Die 
Albigenser  (1842).  In  these  years,  the  elegiac  melancholy  of 

1  Herbstentschlvss  (  Werke,  ed.  M.  Koch,  i,  83). 

2  Archied  (I.e.,  i,  95). 

8  Der  Urwald  (I.e.,  i,  237). 


CHAP.  X.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  543 

Lenau's  first  volume  of  Gedichte  rapidly  gave  way  to  the 
depressing  gloom  of  the  Neueren  Gedichte  (1838,  1840). 

The  chief  influences  which  are  to  be  traced  upon  Lenau's  Lenau's 
poetry  are  those  of  Goethe,  Eichendorff,  and  Byron;  with 
Uhland  and  the  Swabians,  on  the  other  hand,  he  had  little 
in  common ;  his  own  life  was  too  tragic  for  him  to  under- 
stand the  satisfied  provincialism  of  Kerner  or  Morike,  and 
the  friendly  relations  in  which  he  stood  to  the  circle  did  not 
imply  any  literary  sympathy.  No  poet  of  northern  Europe, 
not  even  Holderlin,  expresses  as  intensely  as  Lenau  the  feel- 
ing of  "eternal  autumn,"  of  unrelieved  despair.  And  it  is 
almost  always  a  tragic  despair,  rarely  that  withering  cynicism 
first  made  fashionable  by  Byron  and  imitated  by  Heine. 

"  Lieblos  und  ohne  Gott !  der  Weg  ist  schaurig, 
Der  Zugwind  in  den  Gassen  kalt ;  und  du  ? 
Die  ganze  Welt  ist  zum  Verzweifeln  traurig."1 

In  other  words,  Lenau  is  to  northern  literatures  what  his 
contemporary  Leopardi  was  to  the  literatures  of  the  south 
of  Europe,  the  representative  poet  of  pessimism :  but  with 
this  difference,  that  while  Leopardi  expressed  a  mood,  in 
great  measure,  personal  or — as  far  as  Italian  literature  was 
concerned  —  restricted,  Lenau  gave  voice  to  a  pessimism 
which  has  inspired  the  whole  movement  of  German  litera- 
ture from  Grillparzer  to  Richard  Wagner. 

In  concluding  this  survey  of  the  prominent  writers  of 
Austria  before  1848,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  this  nation, 
like  Norway  during  the  same  period,  built  up,  in  these  years, 
a  national  literature  of  its  own.  Grillparzer  and  Bauernfeld, 
Raimund  and  Nestroy,  set  an  Austrian  stamp  upon  the  German 
drama,  which  was  of  paramount  importance  for  the  subsequent 
development  of  dramatic  literature;  and,  at  the  same  time, 
Lenau,  Griin,  Zedlitz,  and  Grillparzer  himself,  created  a 
national  Austrian  lyric,  which  had  little  in  common  with 
that  of  North  or  even  South  Germany.  Intensely  elegiac 
and  pessimistic,  this  lyric  is  the  voice  of  a  nation  whose 
fate  has  always  been  tragic,  and  whose  literature  to-day,  as 
fifty  years  ago,  is  overshadowed  by  inaction  and  despair. 

1  Einsamkeit  (I.e.,  i,  77). 


544 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE    POLITICAL    LYRIC. 

NOWHERE  in  Europe,  not  even  in  France  itself,  did  the 
Revolution  of  1848  make  a  deeper  incision  into  the  life  of 
the  nation — intellectual,  social,  political — than  in  German- 
speaking  lands.  To  Austria,  which  it  freed  from  the  tyranny 
of  Prince  Metternich,  the  Revolution  meant  almost  as  much 
as  that  of  1789  to  France,  and  the  word  "  vormarzlich "  is 
still  used  there  in  speaking  of  the  period  before  March,  1848. 
But  a  time  of  revolution  is  not,  and  never  has  been,  favour- 
able to  literature,  and  the  period  between  1840  and  1848  in 
Germany  was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  The  literary  fore- 
runners of  the  Revolution,  and,  of  course,  to  a  great  extent, 
the  participators  in  it,  were  the  writers  who  have  been  con- 
sidered under  the  heading  "Young  Germany";  but,  besides 
these  men,  there  were  a  number  of  poets  who  sprang,  as  it 
were,  directly  from  the  revolutionary  movement  itself. 

To  find  the  origin  of  the  revolutionary  lyric,  it  is  necessary 

N.  Becker,   to  go  back  as  far  as   1840.     In  that  year,  Nikolaus  Becker 

1809-45.       (1809-45),  a  poet  of  limited  talents,  wrote  his  famous  song 

Der  deutsc/ie   Rhein^   each   stanza   of  which   began   with   the 

lines  : — 

"  Sie  sollen  ihn  nicht  haben, 
Den  freien  deutschen  Rhein."1 

And    in    the   same   year,   a   hardly    more   gifted    poet,    Max 

Schneckenburger   (1819-49),    wrote   Die    Wacht   am    Rhein, 

which,    thirty   years    later,    became    a    national    song.        But 

Becker  was  the  hero  of  the  day,    and   his   Rheinlied  called 

R.  E.  forth  a  reply  from  Robert  Eduard  Prutz  (1816-72),  a  native 

1816*' 2         °^   Stettin.       Prutz   gave    the    feeling  against   France,    which 

1  Gedichle,  Cologne,  1841,  216. 


CHAP.  XI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  545 

Becker  had  expressed,  a  higher  significance ;  before  the 
Rhine  could  be  "free,"  he  insisted,  Germany  must  break 
the  fetters  of  thought  and  word;  her  press  must  be  free. 
Compared  with  Becker  or  Schneckenburger,  Prutz  was  a 
poet  of  genuine  inspiration,  and  his  first  collection  of  Gedichte 
(1841)  contains  a  few  admirable  ballads;  but,  on  the  whole, 
he  remained,  like  his  friend  Herwegh,  a  political  poet.  Prutz's 
best-known  work  was  a  satirical  comedy,  Die  politische  Wo- 
chenstube  (1843),  in  which  he  championed  the  principles  of 
the  revolutionary  party.  But  the  impossibility  of  a  political 
Aristophanes  in  modern  Prussia  at  once  became  obvious ; 
Prutz  was  charged  with  the  majestt,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  personal  intervention  of  Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.,  whose 
ideal  of  a  state  did  not  exclude  literature,  the  poet  would 
have  paid  severely  for  his  temerity.  Prutz  was  also  the  author 
of  a  series  of  historical  dramas,  which  mirror  the  spirit  of  the 
time,  as  do  also  his  now  forgotten  novels.  At  a  later  date, 
when  constitutional  reform  had  ceased  to  be  a  burning  ques- 
tion, he  fulfilled  the  promise  of  his  early  ballads  in  the 
love-poetry  of  Aus  der  Heimath  (1858),  of  Herbstrosen  (1864), 
and  his  Buck  der  Liebe  (1869).  When,  however,  political 
troubles  began  again  in  1866,  the  demagogue  that  slumbered 
in  him  took  arms  at  once,  this  time  with  the  consequence  of 
three  months'  imprisonment.  Prutz  also  wrote,  besides  other 
works  on  literary  history,  an  excellent  Geschichte  des  deutschcn 
Theaters  (1847). 

The  year  1841  brought  the  development  of  the  revolu- 
tionary lyric  to  a  critical  point ;  towards  the  end  of  this 
year,  in  a  poem,  Aus  Spanien,  Ferdinand  Freiligrath  wrote 
the  oft-quoted  lines — 

"  Der  Dichter  steht  auf  einer  hohern  Warte, 
Als  auf  den  Zinnen  der  Partei ! "  J 

to  which  Georg  Herwegh  replied  in  flaming  words  : — 

"  Partei !  Partei !     Wer  sollte  sie  nicht  nehmen, 
Die  noch  die  Mutter  aller  Siege  war  ? 
Wie  mag  ein  Dichter  solch  ein  Wort  verfehmen  ? 
Em  Wort,  das  Alles  Herrliche  gebar  ?"  - 


1  Gesammelte  Dichtungen,  5th  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1886,  3,  n 

2  Gedichte  eines  Lebendigen,  2,  Zurich,  1844,  62. 

2  M 


546  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

Herwegh  was  attacked  on  every  side,  Geibel,  among  others, 
taking  part  against  him ;  but  the  revolutionary  spirit  triumphed. 
One  after  another,  these  young  poets  of  1841  were  swept  from 
their  "  hohere  Warte  "  to  join  in  the  swelling  chorus. 
Georg  Herwegh,  whose  life  was  as  unbalanced  as  his  poetry,  was 

1817*75!  born  in  Stuttgart  in  1817,  and  early  threw  up  theology  for 
literature.  But  always  tactless,  he  insulted  an  officer  and  was 
obliged  to  fly  to  Switzerland,  where  he  found  a  publisher 
for  the  Gedichte  eines  Lebendigen  (1841),  of  which  a  second 
volume  appeared  in  1844.  Like  almost  all  these  revolu- 
tionary poets,  Herwegh's  reputation  was  made  overnight. 
On  his  return  to  Germany,  after  having  spent  some  time 
in  Paris,  he  was  welcomed  on  every  side  with  enthusiasm ; 
the  Prussian  king,  Friedrich  Wilhelm  IV.,  received  him  in 
a  friendly  spirit  and  expressed  the  hope  that  he  and  the 
poet  would  be  at  least  "ehrliche  Feinde."  When,  how- 
ever, the  new  journal  he  had  planned  was  suppressed  by 
the  Prussian  Government,  Herwegh  again  showed  his  want 
of  tact  by  writing  to  the  king  in  a  tone  which  led  to  his 
summary  expulsion  from  Prussia.  He  returned  to  Switzer- 
land as  a  political  martyr,  and  from  Switzerland  found  his  way 
back  to  Paris.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out,  Herwegh 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  nearly  a  thousand 
men,  partly  French,  partly  German,  and  marched  into  Baden 
with  the  intention  of  converting  Germany  into  a  republic. 
This  practically  put  an  end  to  his  career ;  the  remainder  of 
his  life  was  spent  in  Paris,  Zurich,  and  Baden-Baden,  where 
he  died  in  1875.  Herwegh  possessed  in  a  high  degree  that 
rough-and-ready  talent  for  versification  which  is  essential  to 
a  successful  "  Volksdichter,"  but  his  poetry  was  not  wholly 
political,  and  occasionally  he  shows  a  capacity  for  lyric  feeling, 
which  was  unusual  among  the  revolutionary  poets.  Had  he 
been  less  of  an  agitator  or  had  he  lived  in  less  stormy  times, 
he  would  have  been  a  truer  poet. 

The   most   important   member   of  the   political   group    is 
H.  F.          undoubtedly  Hermann  Ferdinand  Freiligrath,1  who  was  born 
at    Detmold,   on  June  17,   1810.      Freiligrath  was  intended 
for  a  commercial  career,  and  at  an  early  age  was  removed 
from  school.      At  seventeen,  he  was  a  poet;  he  fell  under 

1  Gesammelte  Dichtungen,  6  vols.,  5th ed..  Stuttgart,  1886.    Cp.  W.  Buchner, 
F.  Freiligrath,  tin  Dickterleben  in  Brie/en,  2  vols.,  Lahr,  1882. 


CHAP   XI.]  THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  547 

the  influence  of  Byron  and  Victor  Hugo,  both  of  whom  he 
began  to  translate.  His  apprenticeship  to  business  was  spent 
at  Soest,  where  the  poems  which  fill  the  volume  of  Gedichte 
(1833)  were,  for  the  most  part,  written.  Far  from  being 
revolutionary,  these  first  poems  were  essentially  Romantic  in 
character  and  strongly  coloured  by  the  specifically  French 
Romanticism  which  Hugo's  lyrics  had  brought  into  vogue, 
— like  his  immediate  predecessors,  Freiligrath  took  refuge 
from  the  crassness  of  reality  in  the  poetry  of  the  East.  He 
succeeded  in  catching  the  taste  of  the  public,  and  awoke  to 
find  himself  famous. 

In  1841,  he  married  and  settled  in  Darmstadt;  in  1841, 
too,  Herwegh's  bugle-call  resounded  through  Germany.  For 
a  time,  Freiligrath  resisted  the  new  liberal  ideas,  but  not  for 
long.  The  German  "  Victor  Hugo,"  as  Gutzkow  called  him, 
laid  down  the  pension,  which  had  called  forth  bitter  taunts 
from  Herwegh,  and,  the  day  of  his  "Wxisten-  und  Lowen- 
Poesie"  over,  Freiligrath  became  a  poet  of  the  Revolution. 
In  Ein  Flecken  am  Rhein  (1842),  he  takes  farewell  of  the  AS  a  poet 
"Romantik":- 

"  Dein  Reich  ist  aus  !     Ja,  ich  verhehl'  es  nicht : 
Ein  andrer  Geist  regiert  die  Welt  als  deiner. 
Wir  fuhlen's  Alle,  wie  er  Bahn  sich  bricht ; 
Er  pulst  im  Leben,  lodert  im  Gedicht, 
Er  strebt,  er  ringt — so  strebte  vor  ihm  keiner  !  " 

The  poet  no  longer  stands  "  auf  einer  hoheren.  Warte  " ;  his 
parole  is  : — 

"  Frei  werd'  ich  stehen 
Fiir  das  Volk  und  mit  ihm  in  der  Zeit  ! 
Mil  dem  Volke  soil  der  Dichter  gehen — 
Also  les'  ich  meinen  Schiller  heut !  " 1 

In  1844,  Freiligrath  published  his  political  verse  under  the 
title  Ein  Glaubensbckenntniss,  the  immediate  consequence  of 
which  was  that  he  was  obliged  to  escape  to  Brussels  and 
afterwards  to  Switzerland.  In  1846  appeared  another  col- 
lection of  revolutionary  poems,  pa  im,  and  in  1849  ar|d 
1850,  the  two  little  volumes  of  Neuere  politiscfie  und  sociale 
Gedichte ,  which  contain  Freiligrath's  finest  poetry,  the  best, 
indeed,  of  the  whole  revolutionary  age.  Here  is  to  be  found 

1  Gesammelte  Dichtungen,  3,  19  f.  and  32. 


548  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

the  famous  poem  Von  unfen  auf!  in  which  the  poet  compares 
the  proletariate  to  the  stoker  of  a  Rhine  steamer ;  here,  too, 
he  stirs  the  people  to  revolt  against  the  tyranny  of  their 
rulers,  and  pleads  for  the  freedom  of  the  press.  Die  Todten 
an  die  Lebenden,  which  appeared  in  July  1848,  resulted  in 
an  accusation  of  the  majestt,  from  which  the  poet  was  ac- 
quitted. In  1851,  however,  he  deemed  it  wiser  to  return  to 
London,  where,  in  1846,  he  had  found  refuge  from  the  per- 
secution of  the  German  government ;  and  for  the  next  sixteen 
years  he  made  London  his  home,  returning  to  that  com- 
mercial life  for  which  his  training  had  fitted  him.  The 
national  triumphs  of  1871  awakening  his  patriotism  once 
more,  he  contributed  to  the  "  Kriegslyrik "  some  stirring 
songs.  The  new  German  Empire  was  not,  it  is  true,  the 
empire  which  he  and  his  friends  had  dreamt  of  thirty  years 
before,  but  it  was  at  least  a  united  Germany.  He  died  at 
Cannstadt  in  1876. 

Freiligrath's  earlier,  non-political  poetry,  in  which  he  calls  up 
the  sentiments  of  the  "  Romantik,"  has  retained  its  charm  long 
after  his  songs  of  revolution  have  been  forgotten.  After  all, 
there  is  more  poetic  feeling  in  a  verse  like — 

"  O  stilles  Leben  im  Walde  ! 
O  griine  Einsamkeit ! 
O  hlumenreiche  Halde ! 
Wie  weit  seid  ihr,  wie  weit !  " 
than  in — 

"  Die  neue  Rebellion  ! 

Die  ganze  Rebellion  ! 

Marsch,  Marsch  ! 

Marsch,  Marsch  ! 

Marsch — war's  zum  Tod  ! 

Und  unsre  Fahn'  ist  roth  ! " l 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  in  the  nature  of  all  political  poetry 
to  age  rapidly.  The  rhetorical  pathos  of  poems  such  as 
Die  Todten  an  die  Lebenden  is  lacking  in  good  taste,  and 
their  virulence  against  the  ruling  classes  is  too  verbose  to  be 
criminal ;  but  they  fulfilled  the  mission  for  which  Freiligrath 
intended  them,  and  remain  the  most  effective  lyrics  of  their 
class.  A  characteristic  side  of  Freiligrath's  talent  is  to  be 
seen  in  his  translations ;  he  had  the  Romantic  power  of 
sinking  himself  in  a  foreign  poet's  individuality  and  of  re- 

1  Dichlungen,  i,  116  (Im  Walde),  and  3,  184  (Reveille). 


CHAP.  XI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  549 

producing  not  merely  fine  shades  of  meaning,  but  also  the 
indefinable  spirit  of  his  original.  Some  of  his  translations 
from  Hugo  and  Burns,  poets  for  whom  he  had  an  innate 
sympathy,  are  still  numbered  among  the  best  translations  in 
German  literature. 

A  more  harmless  revolutionary  than  any  of  these  singers 
was  Franz  Dingelstedt  ( 1 8 1 4  -  8 1  ),1  author  of  the  Lieder  F.  Dingei- 
eines  kosmopolitischen  Nachtwdchters  (1842).  To  Dingelstedt,  stedt,  1814- 
however,  the  revolutionary  fever  was  only  a  form  of  "  Sturm 
und  Drang,"  his  hatred  of  crowned  heads  but  a  passing  phase, 
and  the  verses  in  which  he  expressed  this  hatred  are  deficient 
in  individual  character.  In  later  years,  as  "Hofrat"  and 
literary  adviser  of  the  Court  Theatre  in  Stuttgart,  and — after 
the  success  of  his  tragedy  Das  Haus  des  Barneveldt  (1850) 
— as  Intendant  of  the  Court  Theatre  in  Munich,  Dingelstedt 
found  no  difficulty  in  adapting  himself  to  those  circles  which 
he  had  formerly  denounced.  In  1857,  he  exchanged  his 
position  in  Munich  for  a  similar  one  in  Weimar,  where  he 
arranged  Shakespeare's  "  Konigsdramen "  for  representation 
in  an  unbroken  cycle,  an  achievement  which  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  German  stage, 
and  outweighed  in  importance  all  his  lyrics  and  sentimental 
novels.  In  1872,  Dingelstedt  was  appointed  Laube's  suc- 
cessor as  Director  of  the  Hofburgtheater. 

Another  poet  of  this  group  whose  interests  were  not  re- 
stricted  to  politics   was  August  Heinrich   Hoffmann   (1798-   Hoffmann 
1874),  or  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  as  he  called  himself  l^sieben 
after   his    birthplace,    near    Liineburg.2       Hoffmann    devoted   1798-1874, 
himself  to  literary  history  and  Germanic  philology  at  Bonn, 
Gottingen,  and  Leyden.     In  1823,  he  was  appointed  librarian 
at  Breslau,  becoming  at  the  same  time  "  Privatdocent "  in  the 
University  there.     Seven  years  later,  he  was  made  professor, 
and,    in    1840    and    1841,    he    published    two    volumes    of 
Unpolitische  Lieder.      The  consequences   of  this   publication 
were  disastrous  to    Hoffmann  :    he  was  dismissed  from  the 
university,   and,  from    1843   on,   led  a  wandering,   unsettled 
life,  like  a   Spielmann    of   the    middle  ages.      Although  he 
was    a    political    poet,    he    did    not,    like    so    many   of   the 
group,  cease  to  be  inspired  when  he  sang  of  politics.     Even 

1  Sdmmtliche  IVerke,  12  vols.,  Berlin,  1877. 

2  Gesammelte  Werke,  ed.  H.  Gerstenberg,  8  vols.,  Berlin,  1891-93. 


550 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


[PART  v. 


K.  Beck, 

1817.79. 


M.  Hart- 
in  ann, 
1821-72. 


Freiligrath  was  rarely  at  the  same  time  both  poet  and  agitator, 
but  with  Hoffmann  it  was  otherwise;  his  political  songs  are 
genuine  "  Volkslieder,"  and  not  merely  revolutionary  catch- 
words. Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben's  art  has  no  great 
delicacy ;  he  was  a  maker  of  Volkslieder,  not  a  refiner  of 
them.  Of  lyric  subjectivity  he  had  little,  but  perhaps  just 
on  this  account,  it  was  the  easier  for  him  to  catch  the 
popular  tone :  songs  like  Abend  wird  es  wieder,  like  Wie 
konnt'  ich  dein  vergessen  and  Deutschland,  Deutschland,  iiber 
Alles,  the  last-mentioned  written  in  1841,  have  become  the 
common  property  of  the  nation. 

Several  of  the  revolutionary  poets  were  Austrians.  Men 
like  Beck  and  Hartmann,  or  the  Bohemian  Meissner,  stand, 
however,  in  closer  affinity  to  the  German  political  singers 
than  to  the  older  Austrian  poets,  of  whom  the  chief  rep- 
resentative, as  we  have  seen,  was  Anastasius  Griin.  Karl 
Beck  (1817-79),  a  Hungarian  Jew,  began  to  write  under  the 
auspices  of  "Young  Germany,"  and,  for  a  short  time,  stood 
high  in  favour ;  the  theatrical  effects  and  noisy  political 
enthusiasm  of  his  Gepanzerte  Lieder  (1838)  appealed  exactly 
to  the  taste  of  the  time.  His  Lieder  vom  armen  Mann 
(1846)  gave  a  social  -  democratic  turn  to  political  poetry, 
by  emphasising  the  gulf  between  rich  and  poor.  But  no 
very  fastidious  talent  was  necessary  to  make  a  popular  political 
singer,  and  Beck  was  certainly  not  the  least  gifted  of  the 
group.  So  far  as  he  is  now  remembered  at  all,  it  is  by  his 
sympathetic  pictures  of  Hungarian  life  in  poems  such  as 
Janko,  der  ungarische  Rosshirt  (1841),  a  kind  of  novel  in 
verse,  or  in  the  idyllic  Stillen  Lieder  (1839).  Moritz  Hart- 
mann (I82I-72),1  also  a  Jew,  was  an  author  whose  word  carried 
more  weight.  He,  too,  began  by  writing  political  verse,  Kelch 
und  Schwert  (1845),  and  Reimchronik  des  Pfaffen  Maurizius 
(1849),  tne  latter,  his  best-known  work,  being  a  satire  on 
the  Frankfort  Parliament  of  1848.  Hartmann's  main  im- 
portance, however,  for  Austrian  life  and  literature  was  as  a 
journalist;  under  his  editorship,  the  Neue  Freie  Presse — with 
which  he  was  connected  from  1868  on — became  a  power,  not 
merely  in  Austria,  but  throughout  Europe.  Hartmann  was  a 
native  of  Bohemia  and,  in  his  youth,  espoused  the  national 
cause  of  the  Czechs,  but  the  real  champion  of  Bohemia's 

1  Gesammelte  Scfiriften,  tovols.,  Stuttgart,  1873-74. 


CHAP.  XI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


551 


interests  in  German  literature  was  his  fellow-  countryman, 
Alfred  Meissner  (1822-85).  Meissner's  lyric  poetry  (Gedichte, 
1845)  was  influenced  by  Byron,  Lenau,  and  the  French 
Romanticists,  and  his  epic,  Ziska  (1846),  is  filled  with 
the  turbulent  spirit  of  the  revolutionary  age.  His  novels, 
although  then  widely  read,  were  little  more  than  hackwork,  for 
Meissner  was  not  particular  as  to  where  he  obtained  his  stories, 
or  even  in  how  far  they  were  written  by  himself.  Another 
Austrian  poet  of  this  period  was  Hermann  von  Gilm  (1812- 
64),1  a  native  of  the  Tyrol,  who,  with  the  finely  strung  tem- 
perament of  a  Romantic  poet,  combined  a  sturdy  patriotism 
and  liberal  political  views.  In  Vienna  itself,  the  most  gifted 
lyric  genius  about  the  middle  of  the  century  was  Elisabeth 
Gliick,  known  to  literature  as  Betty  Paoli  (i8i4-94).2  Warm 
and  passionate  as  this  poetess  was  by  temperament,  she 
expressed  herself  with  a  restraint  and  a  freedom  from 
sentimentality  that  suggest  at  times  a  comparison  with  her 
acknowledged  model,  Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshorf. 

As  a  poet,  Gottfried  Kinkel  (1815-82)  has  little  in  common 
with  the  writers  just  discussed,  but,  like  them,  he  owed  his 
reputation  to  his  sympathy  with  the  Revolution  of  1848. 
Kinkel  took  an  active  part  in  the  rising  in  Baden  and  was 
condemned  to  imprisonment  for  life;  but,  in  1850,  through 
the  agency  of  Karl  Schurz  (born  1829),  who  subsequently 
played  a  leading  political  role  in  the  United  States,  he 
escaped  to  London.  Kinkel's  Gedichte  (1843)  were  favourably 
received,  and  one  of  his  epics,  Otto  der  Schiitz  (1846),  a  fore- 
runner of  SchefTel's  Trompeter  von  Sakkingen,  ran  through 
more  than  seventy  editions;  but  his  talents  were  hardly  in 
proportion  to  his  popularity  :  his  work,  as  a  whole,  is  charac- 
terised by  that  sentimental  mediocrity  which,  when  the  Revolu- 
tion was  at  an  end,  spread  over  all  departments  of  German 
literature.  In  Hans  Ibeles  in  London  ( 1860),  a  story  of  German 
political  refugees  in  England,  Kinkel's  wife,  Johanna  (1810-58), 
showed  that  she  possessed  more  genius  than  her  husband. 

Emanuel  Geibel 3  formed  the  last  link  in  the  chain  of 
revolutionary  poets ;  and  Geibel's  share  in  the  movement 

1  A  convenient  edition  of  Gilm's  Gedichte,  in  Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek, 
No.  3391-3394,  Leipzig,  1896. 

2  Gedichte  (Auswahl  und  Nachltiss),  Stuttgart,  1895. 

3  Gesamtnelte  Werke,  8  vols.,  3rd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1893.     Cp.  T.  Litzmann, 
E.  Geibel,  Berlin,  1887. 


A.  Meiss- 
ner, 1822- 
85- 


H.  von 
Gilm,  1812- 
64. 


B.  Paoli, 
1814-94. 


G.  Kinkel, 
1815-82. 


E.  Geibel, 
1815-84. 


552  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

was  limited  virtually  to  his  Zeitstimmen  (1841).  He  had  not 
the  fitting  temperament  for  a  political  singer,  and  openly 
disavowed  all  sympathy  with  the  tendencies  upheld  by  Her- 
wegh  and  his  friends.  At  the  same  time,  Geibel  was  by  no 
means  a  pronounced  "  reactionary "  in  poetry ;  his  attitude 
towards  politics  was  only  one  of  indifference.  Born  in 
Liibeck  in  1815,  he  studied  classical  philology  at  Bonn  and 
Berlin.  In  the  latter  city,  he  obtained  an  introduction  to  the 
literary  circles  that  had  gathered  round  Chamisso,  Bettina  von 
Arnim,  and  J.  E.  Hitzig  (1780-1849),  and  he  lived  in  the 
same  house  as  Willibald  Alexis  and  the  novelist  L.  Rellstab 
(1799-1860).  In  1838,  the  Russian  ambassador  in  Athens 
offered  Geibel  an  engagement  as  tutor,  and  this  gave  him  the 
longed-for  opportunity  of  seeing  Greece  with  his  own  eyes; 
here,  too,  he  formed  a  warm  friendship  with  Ernst  Curtius, 
the  archaeologist  (1814-96).  After  his  return  to  Germany 
in  the  spring  of  1840,  Geibel's  first  task  was  to  publish  a 
collection  of  Gedichte  (1840),  which,  a  year  afterwards,  was 
followed  by  the  Zeitstimmen.  The  tone  of  all  his  political 
lyrics  is  conciliatory;  he  pours  oil  on  the  troubled  waters 
of  party  spirit,  which,  in  these  years,  had  encroached  on 
literature. 

"  Kein  eitel  Spiel werk  ist  mein  Singen, 

Ich  spur'  in  mir  des  Geistes  Wehn. 

Und  ob  auch  der  Vernichtung  Tonen 

Der  Haufe  rasch  entgegenflammt  1 

Zu  bau'n,  zu  bilden,  zu  versohnen, 

Furwahr,  mir  diinkt's  ein  besser  Amt."1 

But,  although  no  friend  of  the  Revolution,  Geibel  sympa- 
thised with  the  national  spirit  that  lay  behind  the  unbalanced 
phrases  of  the  revolutionary  singers,  and  shared  their  hope 
of  one  day  seeing  a  united  Germany. 

His  poem,  An  Georg  Herwegh  (1841),  which  made  it 
clear  that  he  did  not  approve  of  the  strong  measures  of 
Herwegh's  party,  won  him  favour  in  high  places ;  Friedrich 
Wilhelm  IV.  granted  him  an  annual  pension  of  300  thalers, 
and,  from  this  time  on,  the  flow  of  his  poetry  was  almost  un- 
broken. In  1843,  he  dedicated  his  Volkslieder  und  Romanze n 
der  Spanier  to  Freiligrath,  with  whom  he  had  spent  the 
summer.  This  was,  of  course,  previous  to  the  appearance  of 

1  An  den  Konig  von  Preussen  (Gesammelte  Werke,  i,  227  f.) 


CHAP.  XI.]  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  553 

Freiligrath's  Glaubensbekenntniss,  a  book  which  came  upon 
Geibel  with  a  shock,  the  following  year.  The  poets,  however, 
remained  friends.  Zwolf  Sonette  fitr  Schleswig-Holstein  were 
published  in  1846,  and  the  Juniuslieder  a  year  before  the 
Revolution.  Geibel  has  written  better  poems  than  any  in  lt"ler> 
these  collections,  but,  as  a  whole,  Die  Juniuslieder  touch  a 
higher  level  than  his  other  works.  In  1851,  Maximilian  II. 
of  Bavaria,  intent  on  making  Munich  the  artistic  metropolis 
of  Germany,  invited  Geibel  to  be  an  "  Ehrenprofessor  "  in  the 
university,  and  he  at  once  became  the  centre  of  the  literary 
coterie  there.  The  seven  years  which  Geibel  spent  in 
Munich  were  the  most  productive  of  his  life.  At  this  time 
he  wrote  the  lyric  epics  Der  Mythus  vom  Dampf,  Der 
Bildhauer  des  Hadrian,  Der  Tod  des  Tiberius,  the  cycle  of 
poems,  Ada,  in  memory  of  his  wife,  whom  he  lost  in  1855, 
three  years  after  marriage,  and,  best  of  all,  the  lyrics  contained 
in  the  Neuen  Gedichte  (1857).  As  a  dramatist,  Geibel  was 
deficient  in  the  power  of  vivid  presentation ;  but  Meister 
Andrea,  a  fantastic  comedy  written  in  1855,  and  Brunhild 
(1858),  an  attempt  to  give  a  modern  significance  to  the  saga 
of  the  Nibelungs,  were,  although  unsuited  for  the  stage,  widely 
read.  In  1868,  Geibel  returned  to  his  native  town,  Liibeck, 
where  the  Prussian  king  offered  him  a  higher  pension  than 
he  had  received  at  the  Bavarian  Court,  and  where  he  lived 
to  see  realised  his  dream  of  Germany  united  under  a 
Hohenzollern  emperor.  The  volume  of  Heroldsrufe  (1871), 
in  which,  however,  there  are  also  earlier  poems,  contains 
almost  the  only  genuine  poetry  inspired  by  the  war  of 
1870-71.  Geibel  died  in  1884. 

Emanuel  Geibel  is  the  representative  German  poet  of  the 
epoch  between  1848  and  1870.  Without  being  either  a  great 
or,  in  the  strict  sense,  an  original  genius,  he  had  the  un- 
deniable faculty  of  coining  "  Volkslieder,"  of  writing  poetry 
that  was  sung  after  him  by  the  nation  at  large.  He  inherited 
the  vast  treasures  of  the  Romantic  lyric,  and  made  them  his 
own,  but  he  was  not  the  singer  of  a  new  time ;  indeed,  of 
all  the  eminent  lyric  poets  in  German  literature,  Geibel  is, 
perhaps,  the  least  individual  and  the  least  stimulating.  His 
facility  of  writing  verses  was  fatal  to  him ;  striking  poetic 
thoughts  are  buried  in  commonplace  phrases,  or  rendered  trivial 
by  a  monotonous  and  conventional  rhythm.  No  poet  who 


554  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  v. 

has  written  so  much,  or  held  so  warm  a  place  in  popular 
regard,  has  had  so  little  that  was  new  to  say  —  in  this 
respect,  Geibel  may  not  unjustly  be  compared  with  the 
"Anacreontic"  poets  of  the  eighteenth  century.  And  yet 
his  influence  was  considerable,  more  lasting  even  than  that  of 
Freiligrath,  who  was  a  poet  of  a  much  stronger  personality. 
Geibel's  dramatic  poems  had,  it  is  true,  only  a  baleful  effect,  for 
they  made  dramas  fashionable  in  which  poetic  language  and 
lyric  feeling  took  the  place  of  dramatic  force  and  action,  and 
his  epics  were  almost  as  little  adapted  to  the  requirements 
of  the  time  as  his  plays ;  but,  in  his  lyric  poetry,  as  we  shall 
see  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  Geibel  left  his  mark,  not  only 
on  the  poets  of  the  Munich  School,  but  through  them  upon 
the  German  lyric  as  a  whole,  almost  down  to  the  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

Of  the  lesser  poets  of  this  time,  who  were  associated 
with  Herwegh  and  his  friends  on  the  one  hand  and  with 
M.  von  Geibel  on  the  other,  a  Silesian,  Graf  Moritz  von  Strachwitz 
(I^22"47)»1  is  noteworthy.  Indeed,  when  it  is  remembered 
that  Strachwitz  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  and  that  in 
two  collections,  Lieder  eines  Erwachenden  (1842)  and  Neue 
Gedichte  (1848),  he  left  poems  of  such  marked  character 
as  Der  Himmel  ist  blau,  or  the  national,  patriotic  song,  Ger- 
mania,  it  seems  no  paradox  to  say  that  he  was  the  most  gifted 
writer  of  the  entire  group.  But  before  he  died,  Strachwitz 
had  hardly  developed  his  full  originality;  his  verse  clearly 
shows  the  influence,  not  merely  of  Herwegh  and  Geibel,  but 
also  of  Platen. 

The  poets  who  have  been  mentioned  in  the  present  chapter 
exemplify  the  condition  of  the  German  lyric  in  the  epoch 
succeeding  that  of  Heine  and  "Young  Germany" — of  the 
revolutionary  poetry,  as  well  as  of  the  more  genuinely  poetic 
verse,  that  sprang  up  as  the  political  excitement  subsided. 
The  reaction  did  not,  however,  mature  a  vigorous,  original 
lyric ;  the  younger  generation  of  poets  preferred  to  fall  back 
on  sentimental  pre-Revolutionary  ideals,  to  dream  patriotic 
and  Romantic  dreams  of  a  revival  of  Barbarossa's  empire, 
rather  than  to  face  the  problems  of  their  own  time.  If  the 
German  lyric  of  this  period  is  to  be  estimated  by  its  sincerity, 
the  entire  body  of  it  grows  pale  before  the  writings  of  an  un- 
1  Gedichte,  in  Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  No.  1009, 1010,  Leipzig,  1878. 


CHAP.  XI.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  555 

assuming  Westphalian  authoress,  who,  as  a  strict  Catholic, 
lived  retired  from  the  world,  knew  little  of  literary  coteries 
or  movements,  and  wrote  more  heartfelt  poetry  than  any  other 
poet  of  the  age. 

Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshoff,1  Germany's  greatest  poetess,  Annette 
belonged  to  an  old  Munster  family.  She  was  born  in  1797,  jj^i^ffte 
passed  an  uneventful  life,  partly  in  her  home,  partly  near  Lake  1797-1848. 
Constance,  and  died  in  the  year  of  the  Revolution.  Out- 
wardly, her  life  was  little  ruffled,  and  she  was  one  of  those 
strong  natures  that  are  able  to  stifle  or  conceal  inward 
troubles.  She  seems  never  to  have  been  absorbed  by  a 
passion,  and  died  unmarried.  Her  best  friend  was  Levin 
Schiicking  (1814-83),  who,  however,  himself  stood  too  much 
under  the  influence  of  "  Young  Germany  "  fully  to  appreciate 
her  delicate  spirituality.  But  beneath  the  exterior  of  this 
retiring,  unattractive  personality  there  was  a  rich  mental  life 
and  a  glowing  poetic  genius.  Annette  von  Droste-Hiilshoff 
is  one  of  the  most  original  lyric  poets  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  She  wrote  without  models,  or  such  as  she  had 
belonged  to  the  previous  century.  At  most,  Byron's  influence 
is  occasionally  noticeable  in  such  of  her  narrative  poems 
as  Walther  (written  in  1 8 1 8),  Das  Hospiz  auf  dem  Grossen 
St  Bernhard  (1838),  and  the  magnificent  Schlacht  im  Lohner 
Bruch  (1838):  the  latter,  the  theme  of  which  is  the  fight 
between  Tilly  and  Christian  of  Brunswick  in  1623,  is  one 
of  the  masterly  epics  in  modern  literature.  Annette  von 
Droste-Hiilshoffs  pessimism,  again,  bears  some  resemblance 
to  Lenau's,  in  spite  of  the  gulf  that  lay  between  the  pious 
resignation  of  the  Catholic  and  Lenau's  defiant  acceptance 
of  the  inevitable.  But  there  is  nothing  of  Heine's  or  of 
Geibel's  sweetness  in  her  poetry :  it  is  almost  repellent  in 
its  masculine  acerbity.  Her  knowledge  of  nature  is  intimate 
and  personal,  although  the  poetry  in  which  she  describes  it 
is  never  sentimental.  She  sings  of  the  red  soil  of  her  native 
land,  Westphalia;  above  all,  of  its  forests  and  moors.  But 
with  her,  nature  is  rarely,  as  it  is  in  the  poetry  of  the  Swabians, 
or  of  the  North  German,  Storm,  a  mirror  for  human  sentiment 
and  suffering ;  she  loves  it  for  itself.  The  poetry  of  the  moor 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  edited  by  W.  Kreiten  (with  biography),  4  vols. , 
Paderborn,  1884-87.  Cp.  H.  Hiiffer,  A.  von  Droste-Hulshoff,  and  ed.,  Gotha, 
1890. 


556  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

has  never,  perhaps,  been  more  beautifully  expressed  than  in 
the  cycle  of  Haidebilder,  which  includes  such  gems  as  Die 
Mergelgrube^  Das  Hirtenfeuer,  Der  Knabe  im  Moor,  Der 
Haidemann.  The  following  strophes,  describing  the  rising 
mists,  are  from  the  last  mentioned  of  these  poems : — 

"  '  Geht,  Kinder,  nicht  zu  weit  in's  Bruch  ! 
Die  Sonne  sinkt,  schon  surrt  den  Flug 
Die  Biene  matter,  schlafgehemmt, 
Am  Grunde  schwimmt  ein  blasses  Tuch, 
Der  Haidemann  kommt ! '     .     .     . 

Man  sieht  des  Hirten  Pfeife  glimmen 
Und  vor  ihm  her  die  Heerde  schwimmen, 
Wie  Proteus  seine  Robbenschaaren 
Heimschwemmt  im  grauen  Ocean. 
Am  Dach  die  Schwalben  zwitschernd  fahren, 
Und  melancholisch  kraht  der  Hahn. 

Nun  strecken  nur  der  Fohren  Wipfel 
Noch  aus  dem  Dunste  griine  Gipfel, 
Wie  iiber'n  Schnee  Wacholderbiische  ; 
Ein  leises  Brodeln  quillt  im  Moor, 
Ein  schwaches  Schrillen,  ein  Gezische 
Dringt  aus  der  Niederung  hervor."1 

Annette  von  Droste-Htilshoff's  technical  mastery  and  virile 
restraint  are  classic  in  the  pre-Romantic  sense  of  that  word, 
but  her  language  is  unclassical  in  so  far  as  it  draws  vigour 
from  her  native  soil;  it  bristles  with  expressive  Westphalian 
phrases,  and  with  those  obscure  ellipses  in  which  the  language 
of  the  people  is  rich.  Das  geistliche  Jahr>  which  was  not  pub- 
lished until  after  the  authoress's  death  (1851),  contains  the 
finest  religious  poetry  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  we  have  to 
turn — in  German  literature,  at  least — to  the  hymns  of  the 
Reformation-era  to  find  anything  so  heartfelt,  earnest,  and 
yet  poetically  so  perfect,  as  the  poems  which  make  up 
the  Geistliche  Jahr,  Annette  Droste-Hiilshoff  made  many 
demands  upon  her  readers ;  she  had  too  little  consideration 
for  the  tastes  and  the  prejudices  of  the  modern  world  ever 
to  be  popular,  as  Miiller,  Heine,  and  Geibel  were  popular 
poets ;  she  is  rather  to  be  classed  with  Holderlin — to  whom 
she  was  by  nature  allied, — with  Morike  and  Keller,  as  an 
original  force  in  the  development  of  the  German  lyric. 

l  Gesammelte  Werke  (ed.  W.  Kreiten),  3,  87  f. 


557 


CHAPTER    XII. 

LITERATURE    OF    THE    PROVINCE.       THE    DRAMA. 

THE  decade  from  1840  to  1850  was  not,  in  German  literary 
history,  entirely  dominated  by  the  revolutionary  movement ; 
it  was  also  an  age  of  re-organisation  and  new  beginnings. 
The  decisive  battle  of  the  first  half  of  the  century,  that 
between  "  Jungdeutschland "  and  Romanticism,  had,  it  will 
be  remembered,  been  fought  out  at  least  ten  years  before  the 
political  struggle  of  1848.  A  fundamental  principle  of  the 
Young  German  party  was  to  reinstate  nature  and  simplicity  in 
the  place  of  the  fantastic  unrealities  which  the  Romantic  poets 
loved,  and  an  immediate  consequence  of  the  movement  was 
a  revived  interest  in  the  literature  of  the  province.  Not  that 
the  later  Romanticists  had  overlooked  the  province;  on  the 
contrary,  they  had  a  keen  sense  for  the  poetry  of  peasant-life, 
and  encouraged  writing  in  dialect,  but  it  was  left  to  a  later 
generation  to  cultivate  such  a  literature  on  strictly  realistic 
principles.  Kleist,  Brentano,  Arnim,  had  all  written  of  the 
Volk  in  a  more  or  less  Romantic  way ;  but  it  was  Immer- 
mann,  in  Der  Oberhof,  who  first  regarded  the  peasant  from 
the  new  standpoint,  and,  about  the  same  time,  Albert  Bitzius  A.  Bitzius, 
— known  to  literature  as  Jeremias  Gotthelf  (i 797-1854) l  J797-l854- 
— wrote  his  Bauern-Spiegel  oder  Lebensgeschichte  des  Jeremias 
Gotthelf  von  ihm  selbst  berichtet  (1837).  Bitzius  was  a 
Swiss  pastor  who  turned  to  authorship  late  in  life ;  his  long 
series  of  novels — prominent  among  which  are  Wie  Uli  der 
Knecht  gliicklich  ward  (1841),  Uli  der  Pdchter  (1846),  and 
Elsi,  die  selfsame  Magd  (1850) — were  avowedly  didactic  in 
purpose,  although  Gotthelf's  moralising  was  too  na'ive,  seriously 

1  Gesammelte  Schriften,  24  vols.,  Berlin,  1861 ;  his  two  chief  works  also  in 
Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  Nos.  2333-2335  and  2672-2675,  Leipzig,  1898. 


558 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


B.  Auer- 
bach, 1812- 
82. 


Schwars- 

•walder 

Dorfge- 

schickten, 

1843-54- 


Aufder 

Hohe, 

1865. 


to  detract  from  the  masterly  objectivity  and  epic  sweep  of  his 
narrative.  At  the  same  time,  it  was  not  he  but  Auerbach, 
a  Swabian  writer,  who  first  made  the  peasant-story  a  recog- 
nised form  of  fiction  in  European  literature. 

Berthold  Auerbach,1  the  son  of  Jewish  parents,  was  born 
at  Nordstetten,  in  the  Swabian  portion  of  the  Black  Forest, 
in  1812.  He  soon  emancipated  himself  from  the  narrow 
orthodox  education  which  his  father  gave  him,  and  studied 
at  Tubingen,  where  Strauss  won  his  interest  for  Spinoza,  the 
hero  of  his  first  novel  {Spinoza,  1837).  In  1843,  a  volume 
of  Schwarzwalder  Dorfgeschichten  appeared  and  at  once  made 
him  famous.  Their  publication  could  not  have  been  more 
opportune  ;  the  fiction  of  the  day  was  that  of  Gutzkow  and 
his  school,  and  dealt  mainly,  as  we  have  seen,  with  social 
questions  and  plans  of  reform  and  revolution,  and  to  a  public 
weary  of  "  Tendenz  -  litteratur "  these  stories  of  village -life 
came  as  a  welcome  relief.  Their  effect  was  magical ;  Auer- 
bach's  readers  did  not  stop  to  consider  whether  the  life  he 
described  was  real  or  not — indeed,  if  they  had  remembered 
Bitzius,  they  would  have  realised  that  Auerbach's  peasants 
were  unduly  endowed  with  their  creator's  own  temperament — 
but  their  sympathies  were  at  once  won  by  the  naive  elements 
in  the  stories  and  by  the  exaltation  of  the  village,  as  opposed 
to  the  town.  The  secret  of  Auerbach's  success  was  that  he 
made  a  compromise  between  a  realism  which  would  not  have 
been  tolerated  at  the  middle  of  the  century,  and  the  traditional 
idealism  of  the  Romantic  writers ;  and,  although  it  would  be 
unfair  to  compare  him  with  the  writers  who  came  after  him, 
he  was,  in  relation  to  the  literary  milieu  from  which  he  sprang, 
a  genuine  realist  and  a  forerunner  of  masters  like  Keller 
and  Anzengruber. 

The  early  Schwarzwalder  Dorfgeschichten^  such  as  Der 
Tolpatsch,  Tonele  mit  dcr  gebissenen  IVange,  Befehlerles,  show 
Auerbach's  art  in  the  most  favourable  light ;  in  the  subse- 
quent volumes  (1848-54),  the  natural  colours  are  paler  and  the 
author's  fondness  for  philosophic  reflection  is  more  obtrusive ; 
characteristic  examples  of  this  tendency  are  the  famous  stories, 
Die  Frau  Professorin  (1846)  and  Barfiissele  (1857).  Auer- 
bach is  also  the  author  of  several  long  novels  in  the  style  of 
Gutzkow  and  Spielhagen ;  An/  der  Hohe  (1865)  and  Das 

1  Gesammelte  Sc hriften,  new  ed.,  18  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1892-95. 


CHAP.  XII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  559 

Landhaus  am  Rhein  (1869)  were  popular  in  their  day,  and  Das  Land- 
are  more  readable  than  Gutzkow's   novels,  but  they  do  not  *%%*j%m 
rank  with  the  "  Novellen."     On  the  surface,  these  novels  of  1869. 
social  life  appear  to  be  more  homogeneous  than  a  book  like 
Die  Ritter  vom  Geiste,  but,  in  reality,  they  are  retrogressive. 
Auerbach  had  no  new  theories  of  fiction  like  Gutzkow ;  he 
was  satisfied  to  imitate  the  type  of  romance  that  had  been 
handed  down  by  the  Romanticists ;   like  them,  he  loved  to 
describe  the  inner  life  of  his  personages,  and  his  books  are 
burdened   with  diaries,   letters,   and    confessions.      Waldfried   Wald- 
(1874),  written  after  the  war,  shows  the  interest  with  which  fried> l874< 
Auerbach  followed  the  political  movement,  but,  as  a  novel, 
it  is  confused  and  overladen.     Towards  the  close  of  his  life 
— he   died   as   late   as    1882 — Auerbach    returned   to    the 
"  Dorfgeschichte "  which  had  won  him  his  first  success,  but 
age  lay  heavy  upon  him,  and  the  attitude  of  the  time  towards 
this  form  of  story  had  also  undergone  a  change.     The  result 
was  that  Nach  dreissig  Jahren  (1876),  and  the  novels,  Der 
Forstmeister  (1879)  and  Brigitta  (1880),  found  comparatively 
few  readers. 

The  Schwarzwdlder  Dorfgeschichten  called  forth  a  veritable 
flood  of  peasant-literature.  Hermann  Kurz,  Morike's  friend, 
and  Melchior  Meyr  (1810-71)  wrote  Swabian  "Novellen,"1 
Hermann  von  Schmid  (i8i5-8o),2  Bayrische  Geschichten 
(1861-64),  F.  von  Kobell  (1803-82)  lyrics  and  Volkslieder 
in  the  Upper  Bavarian  dialect;  while  Adolf  Pichler  (1819- 
1900)  described  the  life  of  the  Tyrol.  A  master  of  German 
prose  about  the  middle  of  the  century  was  the  Austrian, 
Adalbert  Stifter  (1805 -68),3  born  at  Oberplan,  in  the  A.  Stifter, 
Bohemian  Forest.  In  the  idylls  and  stories  which  make  l8°5-68. 
up  his  Studien  (1844-50)  and  Bunte  Steine  (1852),  Stifter 
reveals  a  warm  sympathy  for  nature  in  all  her  moods;  but 
his  character-drawing  is  shadowy  and  does  not  stand  on 
the  same  level  as  his  finished  descriptions  of  scenery.  Sub- 
sequent novels,  Der  Nachsommer  (1857)  and  Witiko  (1864- 
67),  were  strongly  didactic  in  character. 

Close  on   Auerbach's   heels   followed  another   novelist  of 

1  M.  Meyr,  Erzdhlungen  aits  dem  Reis  (1856-70),  4th  ed.,  4  vols.,  Leipzig, 
1892. 

2  Gesammelte  Schriften,  50  vols.,  2nd  ed.,  Leipzig,  1889-92. 

8  Werke,  ed.  by  K.  Furst,  6  vols.,  Leipzig,  1899.     Cp.  J.  K.  Markus,  A. 
Stifter,  2nd  ed.,  Vienna,  1879. 


560  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

provincial  life,  to  whom  the  former  had  lent  a  helping  hand 
— a  pupil  who  soon  threw  his  master  into  the  shade.  Fritz 
F.  Reuter,  Reuter 1  was  the  son  of  the  Biirgermeister  of  Stavenhagen, 
1810-74.  a  little  town  in  Mecklenburg,  where  he  was  born  in  1810. 
In  1833,  for  merely  wearing,  as  a  student  in  Jena,  the  colours 
of  a  political  club,  Reuter  was  condemned  first  to  death,  then 
to  thirty  years'  imprisonment  in  a  fortress,  of  which  he  had 
undergone  seven,  when  the  Grand  Duke  of  Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin  effected  his  release.  His  good  name  was  lost,  and 
he  had  little  zeal,  when  set  at  liberty,  to  begin  life  afresh,  and 
still  less  to  surmount  the  obstacles  which  arose  on  every 
side.  Reuter's  life  was  virtually  ruined  by  the  tyranny  of  the 
Prussian  government,  and  until  his  literary  work  gave  him  a 
status  and  a  profession,  he  was  in  danger  of  becoming  a  slave 
to  drink  ;  had  it  not  been  for  his  wife,  his  genius  might  have 
remained  undeveloped.  It  was  she  who  encouraged  him  to 
publish  his  first  book,  a  collection  of  Lauschen  und  Rimels 
("Short  Stories  and  Rhymes,"  1853),  in  dialect,  which  was 
widely  read  in  the  "  Plattdeutsch  "  districts  of  North  Germany. 
Reuter's  reputation  spread  beyond  his  home  with  the  three 
Plattdeutsch  novels — Ut  de  Franzosentid  (1860),  descriptive 
of  the  condition  of  Mecklenburg  in  the  end  of  the  Napoleonic 
age,  Ut  mine  Festungstid  (1863),  the  story  of  his  imprisonment, 
told  without  either  bitterness  or  useless  regret,  and  his  master- 
piece, Ut  mine  Stromtid  (1862-64),  the  "Stromtid"  being  the 
years  he  spent  in  Mecklenburg  as  agriculturist  or  "Strom," 
after  his  release  from  prison. 

Reuter  was  a  born  story-teller,  but  he  displayed  little  art  in 
constructing  his  novels.  The  anecdote,  the  short  humorous 
incident,  was  his  true  field,  and  all  his  longer  works,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  Ut  mine  Stromtid,  are  virtually  col- 
lections of  episodes.  In  so  far  as  Reuter  had  a  master,  it 
was  Dickens,  but  he  borrowed  only  a  few  hints  as  to  method 
and  exposition.  Reuter's  personages  are,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, drawn  direct  from  life,  and  his  humour  is  peculiarly 
North  German.  In  common,  however,  with  his  English 
model,  he  has  a  tendency  to  exaggerate  one  element  in  a 
character  at  the  expense  of  others,  and,  when  opportunity 

1  Sdmmtliche  Werke  (Volksausgabe),  7  vols.,  gth  ed.,  Wismar,  1895.  Cp. 
K.  T.  Gaedertz,  Aus  Fritz  Reuters  jungen  und  alten  Tagen,  3rd  ed.,  Wismar, 
1899. 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   NINKTEENTH   CENTURY.  561 

offers,  expresses  himself  in  a  sentimental  tone  which  was  wide- 
spread in  European  fiction  about  the  middle  of  the  century : 
but  Reuter  is  more  of  a  realist  than  Dickens,  and  his  humour 
rarely  takes  the  form  of  caricature.  No  other  German  pro- 
vince is  so  completely  reflected  in  literature  as  Mecklenburg 
in  Reuter's  Ut  mine  Stromtid ;  while  Auerbach  only  described  utmine 
certain  types  of  Black  Forest  life,  Reuter  brought  his  native  StJ?mJid 
country  before  his  readers  in  its  most  varied  aspects.  Figures 
like  the  farmer  Hawermann,  the  amusing  Fritz  Triddelfitz, 
the  "  Frau  Pasturin,"  and  a  dozen  others,  crowned  by  the 
inimitable  "  Entspekter,"  Unkel  Briisig,  are  charming  humor- 
ous portraits,  and  alone  sufficient  to  establish  Reuter's  place 
in  the  front  rank  of  German  novelists.  From  1863  to  his 
death  in  1874,  Reuter  lived  near  Eisenach,  at  the  foot  of 
the  Wartburg.  But  in  the  Franzosentid,  Festungstid,  and 
Stromtid)  he  had  exhausted  what  he  had  to  say  to  his 
generation:  his  later  stories,  such  as  Dorchlduchting  (1866), 
in  spite  of  excellent  character-sketches,  do  not  add  anything 
to  what  is  to  be  found  in  his  chief  works. 

Fritz  Reuter  is  one  leading  representative  of  modern  "  Platt- 
deutsch"  literature;   Klaus  Groth  (1819-1899), :  a  native  of  Klaus 

Holstein,  is  the  other.     The  two  men  stand  in  a  characteristic  Groth» 
.  1819-99 

antithesis  to  each  other.     Reuter  was  a  novelist;  his  talent 

was  epic :  Groth,  on  the  other  hand,  was  essentially  a  lyric 
poet.  Reuter's  books  found  readers  all  over  Germany,  while 
Groth's  poetry,  with  its  exclusively  local  interest  and  more 
pronounced  dialect,  awakened  little  interest  outside  the  poet's 
native  province.  Groth's  chief  work,  the  book  on  which  his 
popularity  rests,  is  Quickborn^  a  collection  of  poems  in  the 
Dithmarschen  dialect;  it  appeared  in  1852,  shortly  before 
Reuter's  first  stories  and  rhymes.  Subsequently,  Groth  pub- 
lished several  volumes  of  Plattdeutsch  stories  (Vertelln^  1855- 
59),  which,  however,  mainly  show  the  limitations  of  his  peculiar 
talent. 

While,  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  fiction  stood  so  The 
high   in   favour,  the  German  drama  was  passing  through  a  draina- 
critical   phase.      The   period  under  consideration   might   be 
described   as   one  of  significant    dramatic   experiments ;   for, 
from  about  1840  onward,  the  foundations  were  being  laid  for 

*  Gesammelte  VVerke,  4  vols.,  Kiel,  1893.     Cp.  K.  Eggers,  Klaus  Groth  und 
die  plattdeutsche  Dichtung,  Hamburg,  1885  ;  A.  Bartels,  K.  Groth,  Leipzig,  1889. 

2   N 


562 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


C.  F. 

Hebbel, 
1813-63. 


Judith, 
1840. 


that  dramatic  revival  which  took  place  in  Northern  Europe 
during  the  last  quarter  of  the  century.  Friedrich  Hebbel, 
the  chief  dramatist  to  be  discussed,  was  one  of  the  most 
original  German  poets  of  his  time ;  an  innovator  as  no  other 
European  dramatist  between  Victor  Hugo  and  Henrik  Ibsen, 
he  exerted  an  influence,  more  powerful  than  that  of  either 
Kleist  or  Grillparzer,  on  the  subsequent  development  of  the 
German  drama. 

Christian  Friedrich  Hebbel1  was  one  of  the  few  dramatic 
poets  whose  home  has  been  on  the  German  coasts,  a  region 
so  fertile  in  poetry  and  fiction.  Born  in  1813,  as  the  son  of 
a  poor  mason  in  the  village  of  Wesselburen  in  Holstein, 
Hebbel  grew  up  amidst  depressing  surroundings  and  the  direst 
poverty.  In  1835  he  went  to  Hamburg,  where,  by  heroic  per- 
severance, he  made  up  for  the  defects  in  his  early  education, 
and  subsequently  attended  the  Universities  of  Heidelberg  and 
Munich.  From  law,  to  which  he  first  applied  himself,  he  soon 
turned  to  literature.  In  1839,  after  having  found  his  way  back 
to  Hamburg,  he  was  stimulated  by  Gutzkow's  tragedy,  Saul,  to 
put  his  own  theories  of  tragedy  into  practice,  and  he  wrote  his 
first  drama,  Judith,  which,  in  1840,  was  produced  in  Berlin. 
The  most  characteristic  feature  of  Judith,  which  bears  marks 
of  the  "Sturm  und  Drang"  in  HebbePs  own  life,  is  the 
standpoint  from  which  the  poet  regards  the  story  of  Holo- 
fernes  and  his  murderess.  Judith  is  here  the  saviour  of  her 
people,  but,  like  Schiller's  Tell,  only  after  she  has  avenged 
her  personal  wrongs;  the  conflict  in  the  heroine's  inner  life 
thus  forms  the  centre  of  Hebbel's  drama.  Judith  is  a  brutal 
work,  full  of  strong  passions  and  unbridled  feelings,  and  un- 
doubtedly fell  far  short  of  its  author's  intentions  ;  Holofernes, 
in  particular,  is  but  a  rhetorical  embodiment  of  abstract 
qualities,  in  whom  it  is  impossible  to  believe.  But — and  here 
is  the  specifically  modern  element  in  the  drama — Hebbel  has 
endowed  Judith  not  merely  with  a  tragic,  heroic  individuality, 
but  also  with  a  power  to  rise  to  greatness  through  sin,  which 
was  new  to  the  European  drama  of  the  time. 

While,  in  the  tragedy  of  Judith,  the  development  and  asser- 
tion of  a  woman's  personality  in  the  ancient  world  is  depicted, 

1  Sammtliche  Werke,  ed.  by  E.  Kuh  and  H.  Krumm,  12  vols.,  Hamburg, 
1891-92 ;  also  by  R.  M.  Werner,  in  12  vols.  (six  have  appeared),  Berlin,  1901  ff. 
Cp.  E.  Kuh,  Biographie  F.  Hebbeh,  2  vols.,  Vienna.  1877. 


CHAP.  XII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  563 

the  same  theme  is,  in  Genove-va  (1843),  transferred  to  the 
middle  ages,  and  in  Maria  Magdalene  (1846)  to  a  wholly 
modern  milieu.  For  Genoveva,  Hebbel  chose  the  story  which  Genoveva, 
had  been  decked  out  by  Tieck  in  characteristic  Romantic  l843- 
costume.  In  Hebbel's  play,  however,  the  chief  figure  is  not 
Genoveva,  but  her  lover,  Golo,  who,  in  former  versions  of 
the  story,  had  been  little  more  than  the  incorporation  of 
evil.  With  the  instinct  of  the  born  dramatist,  and  his  own 
over -keen  sense  for  what  was  psychologically  interesting, 
Hebbel  selected,  as  the  central  figure  of  the  tragedy,  not  the 
meek,  suffering  Genoveva,  but  Golo,  the  victim  of  a  passion 
over  which  he  loses  control. 

The  performances  of  Judith  in  Berlin  brought  Hebbel  fame, 
but  they  did  not  improve  his  material  prospects.  At  this 
point,  however,  as  twice  before  in  the  history  of  German 
letters,  a  Danish  king  came  to  the  rescue  :  Christian  VIII. 
granted  Hebbel  a  travelling  scholarship,  which  enabled  him 
to  visit  Paris,  and  here,  in  1843,  was  written  the  greater 
part  of  Maria  Magdalene,  ein  biirgerliches  Trauerspiel.  For  Maria 
this  drama,  which  was  performed  with  great  success  at  Leipzig,  %*/***%  6 
in  1846,  Hebbel  borrowed  some  traits  from  experiences  of 
his  own  in  Munich,  but  it  is,  in  the  main,  a  more  genuinely 
objective  work  than  either  Judith  or  Genoveva.  Maria 
Magdalene — the  title  is  not  well  chosen — is  an  excellently 
planned  play;  in  technical  respects,  indeed,  it  is  a  model 
"tragedy  of  common  life."  The  construction  of  the  plot 
could  not  be  simpler.  A  young  girl  in  humble  life  believes 
that  the  man  she  loves  has  deserted  her ;  she  gives  herself 
to  another,  is  abandoned  by  him,  and  drowns  herself.  The 
central  figure  is  not,  however,  as  might  be  expected,  the 
heroine,  Klara,  but  her  father,  Meister  Anton ;  the  whole 
family  is  shipwrecked  on  his  unbending  pride  and  rectitude ; 
Klara  drowns  herself  to  save  his  honour,  not  her  own,  and 
the  world  which  he  has  built  up  for  himself,  and  in  which 
he  alone  believes,  falls  to  pieces.  This  is  the  tragic  idea 
to  which  Hebbel  has  sought  to  give  expression.  In  the 
details  of  its  workmanship,  Maria  Magdalene  owes  much  to 
the  traditional  "biirgerliche  Tragodie"  as  handed  down  by 
Iffland,  but  the  characters,  even  the  most  episodic,  are  skil- 
fully drawn,  and  the  conflict,  unlike  that  of  Judith  or  Genoveva, 
lies  within  the  sphere  of  ordinary  human  sympathy. 


564 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  fPART  v- 


Minor 
dramas. 


Hebbel 
in  Vienna. 


Herodes 
•und  Mart- 
amne, 
1850. 


His  Danish  bounty  enabled  Hebbel,  in  1844  and  1845, 
to  visit  Italy,  and,  towards  the  end  of  the  latter  year,  he  settled 
in  Vienna.  To  this  period  of  his  life  belong  a  number  of 
minor  plays  which  must  be  reckoned  among  his  failures. 
Ein  Trauerspiel  in  Sirilien  (1851)  and  Julia  (1851)  reflect  the 
dissatisfied  life  which  the  poet  had  led  in  Italy ;  Der  Diamant 
(1847),  an  older  piece,  and  a  "  Marchen,"  Der  Rubin  (1851), 
fail  owing  to  Hebbel's  deficient  sense  of  comedy.  By  far  the 
most  pleasing  of  this  group  is  Michel  Angela  (1855),  a  drama- 
tised anecdote  relating  to  the  great  artist  :  in  order  to  put  to 
shame  those  critics  who  held  up  to  him  the  superior  beauty 
of  the  antique,  Michel  Angelo  is  said  to  have  mutilated  and 
buried  a  work  by  himself,  and  the  critics  discovering  it,  fall 
into  the  snare  which  has  thus  been  laid  for  them. 

In  Vienna,  Hebbel's  prospects  showed  signs  of  improve- 
ment :  it  seemed  as  if  a  change  for  the  better  had  at  last 
taken  place  in  his  checkered  career  Here  he  found  not 
only  generous  patrons,  but  also  his  future  wife,  Christine 
Enghaus,  an  actress  in  the  Hofburgtheater.  From  this  time 
on,  his  work  became  less  oppressively  gloomy,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  Agnes  Bernauer,  was  in  verse.  The  first 
tragedy  of  this  new  period  of  Hebbel's  life  was  Herodes  und 
Mariamne  (1850),  which,  although  unsuccessful  on  the  stage, 
marks  a  further  development  of  his  genius.  There  is 
something  almost  barbarous  in  the  actual  facts  of  the  Jewish 
story  which  are  here  dramatised.  Herodes  commands  that, 
should  he  not  return  alive  from  a  journey  within  a  certain 
time,  Mariamne,  the  wife  he  passionately  loves,  is  to  be  slain, 
in  order  that  she  may  not  belong  to  another  after  he  is 
dead.  He  returns,  however,  unexpectedly,  and  is  coldly 
received  by  Mariamne,  who,  in  the  meantime,  has  learned 
his  instructions.  Herod's  suspicion  is  kindled,  and  he 
leaves  her  once  more  under  the  same  conditions.  A  report 
reaches  Jerusalem  that  he  has  been  killed,  but  instead  of 
mourning  for  her  husband,  Mariamne  holds  a  festival,  in 
the  midst  of  which  Herod  suddenly  appears.  She  is  tried 
and  condemned  to  death ;  too  late  it  comes  to  light  that 
she  is  innocent,  that  the  festival  was  only  a  ruse  to  force 
Herod — who  had  not  faith  enough  in  her  love  to  believe 
that  she  would  die  with  him — to  kill  her  himself.  In  spite 
of  the  complicated  and  improbable  psychological  problems 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  565 

which  had  here  to  be  solved,  Hebbel  has  made  Herodes 
und  Mariamne  a  more  convincing  play  than  the  bare  out- 
line of  its  plot  might  lead  the  reader  to  suppose;  the  char- 
acters are  more  consistent  than  in  his  earlier  dramas,  and 
the  picture  presented  by  the  last  act,  where  the  Roman  world 
and  Asiatic  barbarism  clash  with  the  new  epoch  heralded  by 
Christianity,  is  one  of  the  enduring  achievements  of  German 
dramatic  literature. 

Agnes  Bernauer,  the  heroine  of  Hebbel's  next  drama  (1852),  Agne 
was  a  surgeon's  daughter  of  Augsburg,  who  was  secretly  &** 
married  to  Duke  Albrecht  III.  of  Bavaria.  The  marriage 
brings  the  young  Duke  into  conflict  with  his  father  and  with 
his  duties  to  the  state;  advantage  is  taken  of  Albrecht's 
absence  to  accuse  Agnes  of  witchcraft,  and  she  is  drowned 
in  the  Danube.  Agnes  Bernauer's  fate  has  been  repeatedly 
dramatised  by  German  poets,  for  the  first  time,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, by  Graf  Torring,  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  while  for  Otto  Ludwig  it  had  also  a  peculiar  fascina- 
tion. The  reason  why  Hebbel's  version  has  never  become 
popular  is  probably  because  Agnes  does  not  stand  in  the 
immediate  foreground  of  the  tragedy ;  she  is  beautiful  and 
is  sacrificed  to  the  interests  of  the  state  :  that  is  all.  The 
real  conflict  is  between  the  rights  of  the  individual  as  re- 
presented by  Agnes's  lover,  and  the  claims  of  the  state 
which  are  urged  by  his  father :  the  tragedy  depicts  the 
cold  triumph  of  political  reasoning  over  passion. 

Gyges  und  sein  Ring  (1856)  is  Hebbel's  masterpiece.  His  Gyges 
love  for  the  strange,  the  psychologically  involved,  was  again  s^\ 
the  chief  reason  which  led  him  to  dramatise  this  fable  from 
Herodotus.  King  Kandaules  of  Lydia  allows  the  young  Greek 
Gyges  to  see,  in  her  naked  beauty,  his  wife  Rhodope,  whom 
Oriental  custom  condemns  to  complete  seclusion  from  the 
world.  Gyges  renders  himself  invisible  by  means  of  a  magic 
ring,  but  the  queen,  learning  of  the  disgrace  that  her  husband 
has  inflicted  upon  her,  challenges  Gyges  to  wipe  out  the  stain 
upon  her  honour  by  killing  Kandaules  and  marrying  her. 
He  -obeys,  but  no  sooner  is  she  married  to  him  than  she 
stabs  herself.  The  dramatic  motive  of  the  play,  Rhodope's 
exaggerated  sense  of  a  woman's  honour,  is  even  more  at 
variance  with  ordinary  experience  than  Herod's  overpower- 
ing love  in  Herodes  und  Mariamne  ;  but  Gyges  und  sein  Ring 


566  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

is,  in  the  naturalness  of  its  development,  an  advance  on  its 
predecessor ;  the  solution  of  the  problem  which  Hebbel  here 
set  himself  is  less  open  to  question.  The  verse  of  the  drama, 
too,  is  such  as  Hebbel  had  not  written  previously  and  hardly 
ever  wrote  again.  One  short  quotation  must  serve  as  an 
example.  It  is  Kandaules  the  idealist,  who  dreams  of  a  new 
age  of  freedom,  that  speaks — Kandaules,  whose  soul  revolts 
against  the  oriental  barbarism  over  which  he  reigns,  and 
under  whose  iron  laws  he  himself  must  suffer : — 

"  Ich  weiss  gewiss,  die  Zeit  wird  einmal  kommen, 
Wo  Alles  denkt,  wie  ich  ;  was  steckt  denn  auch 
In  Schleiern,  Kronen  oder  rost'gen  Schwertem, 
Das  ewig  ware  ?    Doch  die  miide  Welt 
1st  liber  diesen  Dingen  eingeschlafen, 
Die  sie  in  ihrem  letzten  Kampf  errang, 
Und  halt  sie  fest  .  .  . 

Die  Welt  braucht  ihren  Schlaf,  wie  Du  und  ich 
Den  uns'rigen,  sie  wachs't,  wie  wir,  und  starkt  sich, 
Wenn  sie  dem  Tod  verfallen  scheint  und  Thoren 
Zum  Spotte  reizt."1 

Die  Nibe-  On  his  most  ambitious  dramatic  work,  Die  Nibelungen 
["ste."'  (1862),  Hebbel  spent  seven  years  of  his  life.  Die  Nibe- 
lungen is  a  trilogy  which,  in  form,  resembles  Wallenstein  or 
Das  goldene  Vliess ;  it  consists  of  a  one-act  prologue,  Der 
gehornte  Siegfried,  and  two  five-act  dramas,  Siegfrids  Tod  and 
Kriemhilds  Rache.  Although  in  beauty  of  verse  and  in 
dramatic  portraiture  Die  Nibelungen  is  not  inferior  either  to 
Herodes  und  Mariamne  or  to  Gyges  und  sein  Ring,  the  subject 
did  not  afford  Hebbel's  genius  such  good  opportunities.  Con- 
trary to  his  usual  practice,  he  made  little  alteration  in  the 
story  of  the  Nibelungenlied ;  he  dramatised  the  epic,  instead, 
like  Richard  Wagner  a  few  years  earlier,  in  his  Ring  des 
Nibelungen,  of  building  up  an  independent  drama  on  the  saga. 
And  this  was  undoubtedly  detrimental  to  the  value  and 
success  of  Hebbel's  work.  To  a  certain  extent,  of  course,  he 
was  obliged  to  modernise  his  theme  ;  he  endeavoured  to  gloss 
over  the  barbaric  strength  of  Brunhild ;  he  made  the  most  of 
the  idyllic  and  sentimental  episodes  of  Kriemhilds  Rache ;  he 
gave  the  drama — and  no  one  was  better  able  to  do  so  than 
he — a  grandiose  background,  where  Christianity  triumphs  over 
the  old  German  heathenism.  The  trilogy  is  thus  a  com- 

1  Act  5  (R.  M.  Werner's  edition,  3,  335  f.) 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


567 


promise  between  the  rough  medieval  simplicity  of  the  German 
epic  and  the  poet's  own  love  for  involved  problems  ;  but  he 
has  retained  too  much  of  the  original  spirit  of  the  Nibelungen- 
lied  to  allow  of  the  full  development  of  his  own  peculiar  art. 
Admirable  as  Hebbel's  figures  are,  —  above  all,  Hagen,  the 
grim  ideal  of  the  Germanic  virtue  of  "Treue,"  Siegfried,  to 
whom  the  poet  has  given  the  light-hearted  joviality  of  the 
Spielmann,  and  Kriemhild,  —  they  live  only  as  pale  reflections 
of  the  heroic  world,  and  are  neither  genuinely  modern  nor 
genuinely  medieval. 

Demetrius  (1864)  was,   in   the  first  instance,   an  attempt  Demetrius, 
to  finish  Schiller's  tragedy  of  that  name,  but,  like  Schiller's,   l86*- 
this,  too,  remained  unfinished.      Hebbel  soon  realised  that 
his  method  was  separated  from  Schiller's  by  too  wide  a  gulf 
for  him  to  follow  in  the  latter's  footsteps,  and  he  commenced 
Demetrius  anew  in  his  own  way  ;  but  as  far  as  can  be  judged 
from  the  two  fragments,   Schiller's  dramatic  objectivity  was 
better  adapted  to  the  subject  than  his  successor's  excessive 
refinement.       Between    Gyges   and   the   Nibelungen^    Hebbel 
wrote   his   Mutter   und  Kind  (1859),    a    pleasing    epic,    or  Mutter  und 
rather  novel,   in  verse.     Here,   however,  the  poet's  love  for  ^"^' 
psychological   problems,    and   his    endeavour    to    avoid    the 
simple  and  the  direct,  mar,  to  some  extent,  the  effectiveness 
of  the  whole;  but  the  poem  is  full  of  fine  passages,  and  is 
a  not  unworthy  example  of  the  idyllic  epic,  on  which  Goethe 
set  a  classic  stamp.     Hebbel's  lyric  poetry  (Gedichte^    1842,   Gedichte, 
1848,    and    1857)  is   deficient  in   all  the   qualities   we   are  *g42>  l848- 
accustomed  to  look  for  in  the  German  lyric  ;  but  it  possesses, 
at  least,  individuality  and  poetic  strength,  if  little  sweetness. 
The  key  to  the  poet's  personality,  however,  is  to  be  found 
not  in  his  lyrics,  but  in  his   Tagebiicher  ;^    whatever  may  be    Tage- 
the  ultimate  value  of  his  dramatic  work,  there  is  no  question  buclur' 
of  the  thoroughness  with  which   he   laboured,   and   of  the 
magnificent  earnestness  of  his  struggle  for  his  art.    How  much 
the  modern  drama  owes  to  him,  how  many  of  the  most  vital 
ideas   of  our  time  may  be  traced  to  his  initiative,  appears 
almost  more  clearly  in  these  Tagebiicher  than  in  the  dramas 
themselves.     His  death  took  place  on  December  13,  1863. 

1  Ed.  in  2  vols.  by  F.  Bamberg,  Berlin,  1885-87.  Cp.  also  Hebbel's  Brief- 
•wechsel  by  the  same  editor,  2  vols.,  Berlin,  189092,  and  Nachlese  by  R.  M. 
Werner,  2  vols.,  Berlin,  1900. 


$68 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


O.  Lud- 
wig,  1813 
65- 


Although  Otto  Ludwig1  denied  all  allegiance  to  Hebbel, 
his  most  important  drama,  Der  Erbforster,  was  obviously 
suggested  by  Maria  Magdalene.  Otto  Ludwig  was  born  in 
1813  at  Eisfeld,  in  Thuringia,  and  was  thus  of  the  same  age 
as  Hebbel;  he  died  at  Dresden  in  1865.  Ludwig  was  one 
of  those  "problematic  natures"  who  go  through  life  without 
obtaining  happiness,  or  even  satisfaction  from  it.  Outwardly 
uneventful,  his  career  was  inwardly  a  succession  of  struggles, 
rebuffs,  and  disenchantments ;  he  was  born  out  of  his  time 
and  he  felt  it.  He  shrank  from  the  world,  and  poverty 
and  ill-health  only  made  his  isolation  the  harder  to  bear; 
and  in  1844,  after  a  short  residence  in  Dresden,  he  retired 
to  a  lonely  house  near  Meissen.  In  1850,  however,  when 
Der  Erbforster  brought  him  fame,  he  emerged  for  a  time 
from  his  obscurity,  made  literary  friends,  and  settled  once 
more  in  Dresden,  where  were  written  a  second  tragedy,  Die 
Makkabder  and  his  "  Novellen." 

Ludwig  looked  upon  himself  as  a  realist,  but  he  is  rather 
to  be  compared  with  a  genre  painter.  His  strength  lay  in  the 
careful  observance  of  detail;  he  loved  to  describe  and  to 
dwell  on  the  infinitely  little.  The  plot  of  Der  Erbforster  is 
sensational,  and  its  style  recalls  the  "  biirgerliche  Drama," 
even  the  "  Schicksalstragodie "  ;  but  the  milieu  of  the  play 
is  worked  out  with  great  care.  The  forester  of  an  estate 
which  has  just  changed  hands  does  not  believe  that  the 
new  owner  is  legally  entitled  to  remove  him,  his  father  and 
grandfather  having  been  foresters  there  before  him,  and  re- 
gards himself  as  possessing  a  hereditary  right  to  the  position. 
Refusing  to  thin  out  some  trees,  he  receives  the  threatened 
dismissal.  Hereupon  follow  thoughts  of  revenge,  which  are 
fanned  into  flame  by  improbable  coincidences  ;  and  ultimately 
he  shoots  his  own  daughter  in  the  belief  that  she  is  his 
master's  son.  Crude  as  Der  Erbforster  seems  from  the  bare 
outline  of  the  story,  it  is  an  effective  and  convincing  tragedy 
on  the  stage ;  the  characters,  which  are,  without  exception, 
admirably  drawn,  are  less  complicated  than  Hebbel's,  and, 
for  that  reason,  more  comprehensible  to  the  listener. 
DieMakka-  Ludwig's  Makkabder  (1853),  the  subject  of  which  was 
baert  1853.  taken  from  the  Apocrypha,  is  written  wholly  in  verse.  The 

1  Gesammelte  Schriften,  ed.  A.  Stern  and  E.  Schmidt,  6  vols.,  Leipzig,  1891- 
92 ;  also  by  A.  Bartels,  6  vols.,  Leipzig,  1900. 


Der  Erb- 
forster, 
1850. 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  569 

traditions  of  Leah's  heroic  sacrifice  of  her  seven  sons  to  her 
religion  are  here  brought  into  connection  with  the  historical 
revolt  of  the  Maccabees  and  their  victory  over  Antiochus 
Eupator.  The  realistic  detail  which  Ludwig  lavished  on  his 
Thuringian  drama  was  impossible  in  Die  Makkabaer  ;  but 
he  made  up  for  it  by  more  careful  construction  and  work- 
manship. Yet,  even  allowing  for  the  difficulty — a  difficulty 
with  which  every  modern  writer  has  to  contend — of  interest- 
ing his  contemporaries  in  antique  or  Biblical  themes,  Die 
Makkabaer  cannot  be  called  a  successful  tragedy  of  its  class. 
The  dramatic  action  practically  reaches  its  climax  at  the  close 
of  the  second  act,  and  the  two  subsequent  acts  are  occupied 
with  personages  and  incidents  which  are  but  loosely  con- 
nected with  the  main  theme.  With  the  exception  of  one  or 
two  individual  scenes  and  the  fine  character  of  Judah,  Die 
Makkabaer  does  not  leave  by  any  means  so  lasting  an  impres- 
sion on  the  reader  as  Der  Erbforster, 

Ludwig's  dramatic  work  suffered  from  the  narrowness  of  his 
critical  standpoint;    he  was  an   uncompromising  admirer  of 
Shakespeare,  —  his    Shakespeare -Studien    were    published    in  Skake- 
1871, — and  the  entire  drama,  from  Schiller  to  his  own  frag-  sf?tarf~ 
ments,  stood  or  fell  by  an  Elizabethan  standard.    This  constant  1871. 
insistence  upon  an  impossible  criterion  explains,  too,  why  he 
himself  was  comparatively  unproductive.     He  remodelled  his 
sketches  and  plays  until  their  original  form  was  past  recog- 
nition ;  he  approached  his  subjects  from  all  sides,  and  con- 
sequently left  behind  him  more  fragments  than  completed 
works.     A  few  early  comedies,  Hanss  Frei  (1842-43),  Die  Comedies. 
Pfarrrose  (1845),  Die  Rechte  des  Herzens  (1845),  anc^>  best  of 
all,  Das  Fraulein  von  Scuderi  (1848),  based  on  Hoffmann's  story 
of  that  name,  were  finished,  but  his  drama  on  Agnes  Bernauer 
— a  published  fragment  bears  the  title  DerEngelvon  Augsburg 
— occupied  him  all  his  life  without  reaching  completion. 

It  is  as  a  novelist  that  Ludwig's  reputation  is  most  secure.   Novels 
He  began  by  writing  short  stories,   and   a  satirical  sketch, 
written  under  Hoffmann's  influence,  dates  from  the  winter  of 
1842-43.     In   1857  appeared  Die  HeiteretJici  and  Aus  dent 
Regen  in  die  Traufe^  both  admirable  novels  of  Thuringian 
village  life,  and  to  the  preceding  year  belongs  Zwischen  Himmel  Zwischen 
und  Erde.     In  this  masterpiece,  two  brothers,  Fritz  and  Apol- 

.  .  .  .          un      . 

lonms,  slaters  by  vocation,  love  the  same  woman.     Apollomus,   1856. 


570  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

shy  and  retiring,  loses  his  opportunity  of  winning  her,  and 
on  returning  from  his  "  Wander jahre,"  finds  her  married  to 
his  brother.  The  latter  now  regards  Apollonius  with  a  guilty 
hatred,  and  one  day,  when  both  brothers  are  working  upon 
a  church  steeple,  "  between  heaven  and  earth,"  he  tries  to 
throw  Apollonius  down,  and  loses  his  own  life  in  the  attempt. 
Apollonius  is  free  to  marry  his  first  love ;  but  the  shadow  of 
the  dead  brother  stands  between  them,  and  he  renounces 
her.  The  chain  of  development  is  carefully  welded  to- 
gether, and  every  picture  the  author  calls  up,  from  the  first 
page  to  the  last,  is  clearly  focussed;  Zwischen  Himmel  und 
Erde  is  an  excellent  example  of  detail-painting  on  a  large 
canvas.  The  background  of  the  novel,  as  of  Ludwig's  shorter 
stories,  is  his  Thuringian  home;  his  work  is  Thuringian 
as  Annette  von  Droste's  poetry  is  Westphalian,  and,  like 
hers,  Ludwig's  style  is  tinged  by  the  provincialisms  of  his 
native  dialect.  His  language  is  neither  smooth  nor  easy,  but 
it  is  terse  and  powerful,  and  at  times  he  writes  passages  of 
dramatic  eloquence  unsurpassed  in  modern  German  prose. 
Above  all,  Zwischen  Himmel  und  Erde  is  free  from  purpose 
or  "Tendenz" — no  small  virtue  in  an  age  when  the  novel 
was  still  dominated  by  the  theories  of  "  Young  Germany." 

Among  the  dramatists  who  were  contemporary  with  Hebbel 
and  Ludwig,  mention  has  to  be  made  of  Robert  Griepenkerl 
(1810-68),  whose  tragedies,  Maximilian  Robespierre  (1851) 
and  Die  Girondisten  (1852),  suggest  a  comparison  with 
Georg  Biichner's  fine  drama  of  the  French  Revolution, 
Dantoris  Tod.  The  revolutionary  spirit  is  also  reflected  in 
the  early  plays  of  R.  von  Gottschall  (born  1823);  but  his 
most  successful  piece  was  Pitt  und  Fox>  a  comedy  modelled 
on  Scribe,  and  performed  in  1854;  and  the  many  plays  he 
has  since  written  are  all  in  the  style  of  the  middle  of  the 
century.  As  a  literary  historian,  Gottschall  is  the  author  of 
a  widely  read  work,  Die  deutsche  Nationallitteratur  des  19. 
Jahrhunderts,  of  which  the  first  edition  was  published  as 
early  as  1855.  Oskar  von  Redwitz  (1823-91)  was  famous  in 
his  day  as  the  author  of  a  sentimental  Romantic  epic, 
Amaranth  (1849),  t>ut  is  now  only  remembered  by  his  play 
Philippine  Welser  (1859).  A  frequently  performed  drama  of 
those  years  was  Narciss  (1856),  by  A.  E.  Brachvogel  (1824- 
78),  whose  talent,  as  is  also  to  be  seen  from  his  novels,  was 


CHAP.  XII.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  5/1 

essentially  theatrical.  The  most  popular  German  comedy- 
writer  since  Kotzebue  was  the  Saxon,  Roderich  Benedix 
(1811-73).  The  plays  of  Benedix  combine  a  homely  pro- 
vincialism with  undoubted  powers  of  characterisation  and 
command  of  stage  effects,  but  they  possess  little  or  no  literary 
interest,  except,  perhaps,  as  modern  equivalents  of  the  Saxon 
comedy  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Less  talented  than 
Benedix,  Charlotte  Birch-Pfeiffer  (1800-68)  adapted  popular 
novels  to  the  stage — Dorf  und  Stadt  (1848),  for  example, 
from  Auerbach's  Frau  Professorin,  and  Die  Waise  aus  Lowood 
(1855)  from  Jane  Eyre  —  in  the  style  of  the  traditional 
"  Rtihrstiicke  "  of  Iffland  and  Kotzebue. 


572 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE  NOVEL  FROM  1848  TO  1870. 

As  the  storms  of  the  Revolution  gradually  subsided,  German 
literature  found  itself  upon  what  might  be  described  as  a 
uniform  plateau.  The  period  between  1848  and  1870  is  not 
devoid  of  outstanding  names  and  noteworthy  writings,  but  the 
general  impression  which  it  leaves  is  one  of  mediocrity. 
What  was  great  in  the  age  awakened  little  or  no  response 
on  the  part  of  the  nation  ;  it  was  an  epoch  without  youth,  and 
consequently  without  enthusiasm.  All  that  "  Young  Ger- 
many" had  dreamt  of  politically,  all  that  the  Revolutions  of 
1830  and  1848  had  promised,  was  still  as  far  from  realisation 
as  if  these  upheavals  had  never  taken  place ;  and  the  nation 
was  overcome  by  a  sense  of  hopelessness.  The  stagnation 
and  provincialism,  into  which  the  German  mind  is  so  prone 
to  fall,  again  made  itself  felt  and  frustrated  every  effort,  until 
the  struggle  of  1870-71,  by  placing  Germany  in  the  front  rank 
of  European  nations,  and  giving  her  new  responsibilities, 
brought  a  fresh  incentive  to  bear  on  her  literature  and  art. 
Thephilo-  As  regards  the  general  character  of  this  period,  the  most 
sopinc  conspicuous  change  was  that  Hegelianism  gradually  lost 
ground — a  change  mainly  due  to  the  rise  of  a  new  power  in 
the  intellectual  life  of  Europe,  to  natural  science  and  the 
positive  philosophy  associated  with  it  Strauss's  Leben  Jesu 
had,  although  Strauss  himself  was  a  disciple  of  the  Hegelian 
school,  done  much  to  clear  the  way  for  a  materialistic  phil- 
osophy ;  but  Hegelianism  was  first  shaken  to  its  foundation  by 
Ludwig  A.  Feuerbach  (1804-72),  whose  work  on  Das  Wesen 
des  Christenthums  appeared  in  1841,  and  formed  a  prominent 
landmark  in  the  development  of  positive  thinking.  The 
new  intellectual  movement  was,  however,  a  result  of  foreign 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  573 

stimulus.  In  France  and  England,  Auguste  Comte's  positiv- 
ism had  acted  as  an  antidote  to  the  unhealthy  half-religious, 
half-social  theorisings  of  Saint-Simon — theorisings  which  in 
Germany  had  made  some  progress  under  the  Young  German 
School — and  Comte's  influence  found  its  way  to  Germany, 
if  not  directly,  at  least  through  English  thinkers,  such,  for 
instance,  as  John  Stuart  Mill.  On  sociology  and  political 
economy,  again,  Arnold  Ruge  (1802-80),  Ferdinand  Lassalle 
(1825-64),  and  Karl  Marx  (1818-83),  whose  famous  work, 
Das  Kapital,  began  to  appear  in  1867,  helped  to  introduce 
advanced  English  theories.  The  first  and  most  distinguished 
of  Darwin's  followers  in  Germany  was  Ernst  Haeckel  (born 
1834),  who,  since  1862,  has  been  professor  in  Jena;  in 
Switzerland,  Jakob  Moleschott  (1822-93)  vindicated  tne  rights 
of  science  to  be  treated  purely  empirically ;  while  men  like 
Karl  Vogt  (1817-95)  and  Ludwig  Biichner  (1824-99),  the 
author  of  an  attractively  written  but  superficial  work,  Kraft 
und  Staff  (1855),  popularised  the  standpoint  of  modern 
science.  Hegelian  idealism  had  a  hard  stand  against  the 
attacks  of  this  scientific  and  sociological  battery  that  was 
brought  to  bear  on  it  between  1850  and  1870.  The  new 
philosophy,  on  the  other  hand,  was  hardly  adapted  to  form 
a  basis  for  literature,  and  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  poetic 
souls,  who  did  not  regard  scientific  positivism  as  the  world's 
salvation,  harking  back  to  the  philosophy  of  Schopenhauer. 
Schopenhauer's  day,  indeed,  had  now  come ;  these  decades 
with  their  resigned,  passive  spirit,  were  more  favourable  to 
the  spread  of  his  ideas  than  the  days  when  Romanticism 
and  Realism  clashed,  and  when  Die  Welt  als  Wille  und 
Vorstellung  had  just  appeared.  The  higher  poetry  of  the 
period  under  consideration  took  refuge  in  pessimism. 

As  far  as  literature  is  concerned,  the  period  from   1848 
to   1870  was  pre-eminently  an  age  of  fiction.     The  experi- 
mental beginnings,  made  on  a  grandiose  scale  by  men  like 
Gutzkow  and   Laube,  now  began  to  be  appreciated.      One 
of  the  chief  German  novelists  of  this  age  was  Gustav  Freytag,1  G.Freytag, 
who  was  born  at  Kreuzburg,  in  Upper  Silesia,  in  1816,  and  l8lfi-95- 
died   in    1895.      To  the  Romantic  wonderland  of  German 
antiquity  Freytag  was  introduced  in  Breslau  by  Hoffmann  von 

1  Gesammelte   Werke,  22  vols.,   Leipzig,   1886-88.     Cp.  C.  Albert!,  Gustav 
Freytag,  Leipzig,  1890,  and  F.  Seller,  Guslav  Freytag,  Leipzig,  1898. 


574 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


His 
dramas. 


Die  Jour- 
nalist en, 
1852. 


Soil  vnd 

Haben, 

1855- 


Fallersleben ;  while  at  Berlin,  he  studied  under  Lachmann.  In 
1839,  he  became  Privatdocent  at  the  University  of  Breslau, 
shortly  afterwards  to  relinquish  an  academic  career  for  litera- 
ture. In  1848,  he  and  Julian  Schmidt  (i 818-86),  the  literary 
historian,  became  editors  of  Die  Grenzboten,  a  bi-monthly 
review,  with  which  Freytag  maintained  his  connection  until 
1870.  Freytag's  personal  tastes  ran  in  the  direction  of  the 
drama  rather  than  the  novel ;  his  academic  studies  had  been 
mainly  directed  to  the  drama,  and  his  Technik  des  Dramas 
(1863)  is  a  valuable,  if  now  somewhat  old-fashioned,  treatise 
on  dramaturgy.  His  first  successes  were  also  plays.  Die 
Brautfahrt,  oder  Kunz  von  der  Rosen,  he  wrote  in  1841 ; 
and  it  was  followed  by  Die  Valentine  (1847),  and  Graj 
Waldemar  (1848),  dramas  which  treat,  with  a  rather  pointed 
"  Tendenz,"  modern  problems.  Freytag's  only  poetic  tragedy 
in  the  higher  style,  Die  Fabier  (1859),  was  a  failure,  but, 
six  years  earlier,  he  had  written  Die  Journalisten  (1852), 
one  of  the  best  German  comedies  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. It  speaks  volumes  for  the  vitality  of  this  play  that, 
although  dealing  largely  with  politics,  and  especially  with  the 
part  played  by  journalism  at  elections, — in  other  words,  with  a 
condition  of  affairs  that  has  long  ceased  to  exist  as  Freytag 
described  it, — Die  Journalisten  is  still  a  favourite  comedy  on 
the  German  stage.  This  is  due,  in  the  first  instance,  to  the 
fresh  humour  of  its  situations,  and  also  to  the  fact  that  from 
his  predecessors  of  the  Young  German  School,  Freytag  had 
learned  the  art  of  writing  a  brilliant,  if  somewhat  superficial, 
dialogue.  In  his  hero,  a  journalist,  Konrad  Bolz,  Freytag 
gave  modern  German  literature  its  favourite  type  of  bon-vivant 
or  "  Lebemann."  Here  the  witty  man  of  the  world,  whom 
the  preceding  generation  had  introduced  from  French  literature, 
is  thoroughly  Germanised,  and,  from  this  time  on,  becomes  a 
stock  figure  in  German  fiction  and  comedy. 

"  Der  Roman  soil  das  Volk  da  suchen,  wo  es  in  seiner 
Tiichtigkeit  zu  finden  ist,  namlich  bei  der  Arbeit"  These 
words,  written  by  Julian  Schmidt,1  form  the  motto  of  Soil  und 
Haben  (1855),  Freytag's  best  novel.  Gutzkow  first  set  the 
example  of  theorising  about  the  mission  of  the  novel ;  but 
Goethe  had  written  Wilhelm  Meisters  IVanderjahre  and  Im- 

1  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Nationa Hitter atur  im  19.  Jahrhundert,  Leipzig, 
1853,  2,  370. 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  575 

mermann  his  Epigonen  with  an  object  in  view  not  unsimilar  to 
that  which  Freytag  here  made  his  own.  As  has  been  justly 
observed,  however,  Freytag  was  the  first  to  construe  the  word 
"  Arbeit "  as  meaning  everyday,  mercantile  life.  Soil  und 
Haben  is  a  glorification  of  German  commercialism :  the  bales 
and  coffee-sacks  of  the  house  of  T.  O.  Schroter  in  Hamburg 
outweigh  the  ancient  prestige  of  the  barons  of  Rothsattel. 
There  is  something  of  the  democratic  spirit  which  "Young 
Germany  "  had  imported  from  France,  in  this  elevation  of  the 
middle-class  at  the  nobility's  expense,  but  Freytag  does  not 
obtrude  his  social  doctrines.  He  holds  the  balance  equal  by 
introducing,  as  the  real  hero  of  the  novel,  Fritz  von  Fink,  a 
young  nobleman  whose  nobility  has  been  rejuvenated  in  the 
wilds  of  the  New  World.  Through  honest  handiwork  and 
commercial  activity,  Fink,  who  is  a  finer,  less  shallow  Konrad 
Bolz,  saves  the  house  of  Rothsattel  and  ultimately  marries 
the  Baron's  daughter,  Lenore,  while  Anton  Wohlfahrt,  the 
humbler  representative  of  the  commercial  spirit,  ends  as 
brother  -  in  -  law  of  the  wealthy  Hamburg  merchant.  The 
charm  of  Soil  und  Haben  —  and  in  this  respect  Freytag 
had  learned  from  Dickens — lies  in  its  genial  humour;  the 
kindly  spirit  in  which  the  book  is  written  conceals  its  often 
narrowly  provincial  outlook  on  life,  and  the  want  of  in- 
dividuality, especially  in  its  female  characters.  Lastly — and 
not  the  least  of  its  merits — Soil  und  Haben  is  one  of  the 
most  skilfully  constructed  of  all  German  novels. 

In  Freytag's  next  book,  Die  verlorene  Handschrift  (1864),  Diever- 
the  easy-going  provincialism  of  his  art  1s  more  obtrusive;  l^enj 
or,  it  may  be  that  it  is  here  less  in  place  than  in  the  com- 
mercial  novel.  Die  verlorene  Handschrift  is  not  so  spontane- 
ous  as  Soil  und  Haben ;  its  plot  is,  in  comparison,  artificial. 
Abandoning  the  milieu  with  which  he  was  familiar,  the  author 
introduces  conflicts  which  demanded  a  finer  poetic  insight 
than  he  had  at  his  command.  As  long,  for  instance,  as 
Freytag  is  describing  Professor  Werner's  search  for  a  lost  manu- 
script of  Tacitus,  he  is  completely  successful,  but  when  his  hero 
comes  into  contact  with  aristocratic  circles,  and  a  prince  falls 
in  love  with  Use,  the  professor's  wife,  the  story  ceases  to  be 
convincing.  In  the  end,  the  birth  of  a  child  consoles  the 
professor  for  the  manuscript  he  cannot  find,  and  brings  the 
novel  to  a  conventional  end. 


5/6 


THE    NINETEKNTM   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Bilder  aus 
derdeut- 


1859-62. 


DieAhnen, 
1872-80. 


Between  1859  and  1862,  Freytag  published  a  series  of 
Bilder  aus  der  deutschen  Vergangenheit  (5  vols.),  in  which  he 
brought  the  past  history  of  the  German  people  home  to  his 
contemporaries.  Although  the  admirable  scenes  of  the  Polish 
revolt  in  Soil  und  Haben  gave  a  foretaste  of  Freytag's  ability 
vividly  to  describe  historical  events,  his  homely  humour 
and  easy  -  going  realism  were,  in  general,  not  well  adapted 
to  make  him  a  trustworthy  exponent  of  history.  The  "  spiess- 
btirgerliche"  element  in  Freytag's  art  disappeared,  however, 
almost  completely  in  these  character-  sketches  of  the  great 
men  who  built  up  Germany's  past.  Historical  events  and 
personages  are,  it  is  true,  now  seen  with  sterner,  more  strictly 
realistic  eyes  than  Freytag's,  but  his  warm  sympathy  popu- 
larised his  subject  where  the  labours  of  more  faithful  historians 
were  ineffective.  Upon  the  Bilder  der  deutschen  Vergangen- 
heit  was  based  the  cycle  of  romances,  Die  Ahnen,  which 
opened,  in  1872,  with  Ingo  und  Ingraban,  two  novels  of  Ger- 
man national  life  in  the  fourth  and  eighth  centuries.  They 
were  followed,  in  1874,  by  Das  Nest  der  Zaunkonige,  the  scene 
of  which  is  laid  at  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  ;  in 
1875,  by  Die  Briider  vom  deutschen  Hause  (thirteenth  cen- 
tury). A  year  afterwards  came  Marcus  Konig,  a  story  of 
the  Reformation  period;  and  in  1878,  Die  Geschwister,  two 
stories  illustrating  respectively  the  Thirty  Years'  War  and  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  series  was  closed 
in  1880  with  Aus  einer  kleinen  Stadt,  a  story  which  culminates 
in  the  Revolution  of  1848.  When  the  enormous  magnitude 
of  the  task  which  'Freytag  here  set  himself  is  considered  — 
that  of  following  the  "  Kulturgeschichte  "  of  his  nation  from 
its  beginnings  down  to  the  nineteenth  century  —  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  value  of  the  series  should  be  unequal. 
None  of  the  novels  of  Die  Ahnen  can  be  compared  with 
Soil  und  Haben,  or  even  Die  verlorene  Handschrift  ;  the 
earlier  stories  are  marred  by  that  professorial  didacticism 
which,  as  a  consequence  of  the  impoverished  condition  of 
German  letters  at  the  middle  of  the  century,  spread  over  the 
historical  novel,  and  when  the  cycle  reached  a  period  with 
which  Freytag  was  more  familiar,  "  die  Kraft  und  die  Freude 
an  der  Arbeit,"  which  he  had  hoped  would  accompany  him  to 
the  end,  would  seem  to  have  forsaken  him.  His  early  interest 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  577 

in  the  scheme  visibly  abated,  and  on  finding  a  journalist  set 
up  as  the  last  link  in  the  evolution  of  a  German  family, 
we  are  reminded  that  the  author  himself  had  sprung  from 
the  milieu  of  "Young  Germany." 

A  more  militant  representative  of  the  social  novel  in  F.  Spiel- 
Germany  was  Friedrich  Spielhagen,1  who,  all  his  life,  had 
stood  "  auf  den  Zinnen  der  Partei."  Spielhagen  was  born 
at  Magdeburg  in  1829,  and  passed  his  youth  on  the  shores 
of  the  Baltic;  he  turned  to  literature  in  1857,  and  in  1862, 
settled  permanently  in  Berlin.  He  is  Gutzkow's  direct 
successor  in  fiction,  and,  like  his  master,  employs  the  novel 
in  the  service  of  ideas ;  his  books  are  all,  more  or  less, 
"Tendenzromane."  But  it  is  only  necessary  to  read  one  of 
Spielhagen's  masterpieces  after  such  a  novel  as  Ritter  vom 
Geiste,  to  realise  that,  in  spite  of  his  didacticism,  he  is  a 
truer  artist  than  his  predecessor.  Spielhagen  had  written  two 
short  stories,  Clara  Vere  (1857)  and  Auf  der  Dime  (1858), 
before  he  became  famous  with  Problematische  Naturen  (1860),  Protle- 
a  continuation  of  which,  Durch  Nacht  zum  Licht*  appeared  5f£** 

,._,.,  .  „    Naturtn, 

two  years  afterwards.  "  Es  gibt  problematische  Naturen,  1860. 
wrote  Goethe  in  one  of  his  Spruche  in  Prosa?  "  welche  keiner 
Lage  gewachsen  sind,  in  der  sie  sich  befinden,  und  denen  keine 
genug  thut.  Daraus  entsteht  der  ungeheure  Widerstreit,  der 
das  Leben  ohne  Genuss  verzehrt;"  and  these  words  were 
more  applicable  to  the  generation  of  unpractical  dreamers 
who,  at  the  middle  of  the  century,  had  set  their  hopes  on  the 
Revolution,  than  to  Goethe's  contemporaries.  Spielhagen  was 
thus  writing  from  the  heart  of  his  time,  when  he  made  Oswald 
Stein,  the  hero  of  his  novel,  a  "  problematic  nature  " ;  and  this 
Stein,  who  begins  life  as  a  tutor  in  the  family  of  a  Pomeranian 
nobleman,  and  ends  fighting  on  the  barricades  in  1848 — who 
is  drawn  opposite  ways  by  democratic  ideals  of  state  and 
society,  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the  distractions  of  social  life 
on  the  other — is  still,  after  forty  years,  a  comparatively  modern 
figure.  As  an  antidote  to  the  constant  strife  with  existence,  in 
which  such  problematic  natures  are  involved,  Spielhagen  offered 
the  advanced  political  liberalism  of  his  time,  the  belief  in  "  the 

1  Aitsgewcihltc  Romane,  22  vols.,  Leipzig,  1895.  Cp.  G.  Karpeles,  F.  Spiel- 
hagen, Leipzig,  1888. 

a  Goethe's  Nachgclasstnt  Werke,  Stuttgart,  1833,  9,  49.  Cp.  chap.  33  of  the 
novel. 

2  O 


578 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


In  ReiK 

und  died, 
1866. 


Sturm- 
ftut,  1876. 


solidarity  of  all  human  interests."     Dr  Braun,  the  representa- 
tive of  this  liberalism,  expresses  the  author's  standpoint : — 

"  Wer  die  Solidaritat  aller  menschlichen  Interessen — das  oberste 
Princip  aller  politischen  und  moralischen  Weisheit — begriffen  hat, 
weiss  auch,  das  seine  individuelle  Existenz  nur  ein  Tropfen  in  dem 
ungeheuren  Strome  ist  und  dass  diese  Tropfen- Existenz  weder  das 
Recht  nochdie  Moglichkeit  der  absoluten  Selbstandigkeithat.  Wenn 
die  Menschen  wie  reife  Friichte  vom  Baume  fielen,  mochte  es  schon 
eher  gehen.  So  aber,  wo  wir  von  einer  Mutter  mit  Schmerzen  ge- 
boren  werden,  um  Jahre  lang  die  hiilflosesten  aller  Geschopfe  zu 
sein  ...  wo  wir  spater  jeden  wahren  Genuss,  jedes  Fest  der  Seele 
nur  mit  Anderen  geniessen  und  feiern  konnen — da  diirfen  wir  uns 
denn  auch  nicht  langer  strauben,  zu  sein,  was  wir  wirklich  sind  : 
Menschensohne,  Kinder  dieser  Erde,  mit  dem  Recht  und  der 
Pflicht,  uns  hier  auf  diesem  unseren  Erbe  auszuleben  nach  alien 
Kraften,  mit  der  anderen  Menschensohnen,  unseren  Briidern,  die 
mit  uns  gleiche  Rechte  und  freilich  auch  gleiche  Pflichten  haben."  ' 

In  1864,  Spielhagen  wrote  Die  von  Hohenstein,  and  in  1866, 
another  powerful  romance,  In  ReiK  und  Glied.  This,  again, 
is  a  novel  with  a  purpose ;  in  the  background  are  schemes 
for  the  improvement  of  the  working-classes,  socialistic  dreams, 
and  invectives  against  capital.  The  story  ends  tragically ;  the 
ideal  of  a  society  marching  forward  "  in  rank  and  file  "  is  not 
realised,  and  the  hero,  who  was  modelled  on  Ferdinand 
Lassalle,  is  ultimately  killed,  like  his  prototype,  in  a  duel. 
Hardly  less  interesting  was  Spielhagen's  next  work,  Hammer 
und  Amboss  (1869),  but  then  came  a  long  series  of  romances, 
none  of  which  reached  the  level  of  his  early  masterpieces : 
only  once  again,  in  Sturmflut  (1876),  did  Spielhagen  write 
a  novel  worthy  of  comparison  with  Problematische  Naturen. 
In  Sturmflut,  the  financial  crises  which  took  place  in  Berlin 
after  the  Franco-German  war  are  brought  into  a  grandiose, 
although  somewhat  forced,  connection  with  a  storm  on  the 
Baltic  coasts.  In  1879,  appeared  a  story  of  Pomerania, 
Plait  Land,  in  1880,  Quisisana,  in  1881,  Angela,  and  in 
1888,  Noblesse  oblige,  a  historical  novel,  the  scene  of  which  is 
laid  in  Hamburg.  Spielhagen's  more  recent  romances  have 
failed  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the  younger  generation,2 
but  he  has  always  retained  their  sympathy  by  his  friendly 
attitude  towards  the  literary  movements  of  the  day.  Occasion- 
ally, however,  in  spite  of  their  author's  old-fashioned  technique, 

1  Durch  Nacht  turn  Licht,  chap,  i  (Ausgewahlte  Komane,  5,  15). 

*  See,  for  example,  H.  and  J.  Hart,  Jfritische  Wa/engange,  6,  Leipzig,  1884. 


CHAP.  XIII.]       THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  579 

books  like  J^austulus  (1897)  and  freigeboren  (1900)  rise  to 
the  level  of  Problematische  Naturen, 

In  the  historical  novel,  Alexis  had  virtually  no  successors ;  The  his- 
even  the  names  of  such  novelists  as  Heinrich  Konig  (1790- 
1869)  and  Georg  Hesekiel  (1819-74)  are  now  forgotten*.     In 
1878,  however,  Theodor  Fontane  (1819-98),  whose  Gedichte  T.  Fon- 
(1851)  and  Balladen  (1861)  contain  some  terse  and  vigorous  ta"e>  l8lS' 
ballad-poetry,   published  Vor  dem  Sturm,  a  romance  of  the 
"  Befreiungskrieg,"  which  was  faithful  to  the  best  traditions  of 
Alexis.      Fontane  also  wrote  many  volumes  of  travel  (Aus 
England,  1860;    Wanderungen  durch  die  Mark  Brandenburg, 
1862-81)  and  vivid  accounts  of  his  experiences  as  war-cor- 
respondent (Der  deutsche  Krieg  von   1866,  1869-71;  Kriegs- 
gefangen,  1871),  but  a  history  of  German  literature  is  chiefly 
concerned  with  his  novels  of  modern  life,  which  will  be  dis- 
cussed in  a  subsequent  chapter.    An  exotic  element  was  intro- 
duced into  German  fiction  from  America  by  Karl  Anton  Postl, 
a  native  of  Moravia,  who  wrote  under  the  pseudonym  of  Charles  c.  Seals- 
Sealsfield   (I793-I864),1  and  whose  sketches  and  novels  of  fieid,  1793- 
American  life — notably  the  romance  Der  Virey  und  die  Aris- 
tokraten  (1834),  the  scene  of  which  is  laid  in  Mexico,  in  181 1 
— have  never  met  with  the  recognition  they  deserve.     Another 
novelist  who  wrote  about  America  was  Friedrich  Gerstacker 
(1816-72),  but,  like  Sealsfield's,  Gerstacker's  voluminous  writ- 
ings have  fallen  into  a  neglect  that  is  difficult  to  account  for. 
A  similar  fate  has,  with  more  justice,  befallen  the  novels  and 
plays  of  F.  W.  von  Hacklander  (1816-77). 

A  less  healthy  development  of  modern  German  fiction  is  Theanti- 
to  be  seen  in  the  antiquarian  novels  of  Ebers,  Dahn  and  Haus-  quanan 
rath.  For  the  Romantic  delight  in  the  past,  which  the  older 
school  of  historical  novelists  learned  from  Scott,  these  writers 
substituted  historical  accuracy  and  learned  detail ;  a  didactic 
spirit  takes  the  place  of  imagination  and  poetry.  Georg  Ebers 
(i837-98),2  Professor  of  Egyptology  in  Leipzig,  wrote,  in  1864, 
a  novel  of  ancient  Egyptian  life,  Eine  agyptische  Konigstochter 
(1864),  and  followed  it  up  by  a  large  number  of  romances  on 
similar  themes ;  but,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Homo  sum 
(1878),  Ebers'  works  are  little  more  than  conventional,  senti- 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  srd  ed.,  15  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1845-46.     Cp.  A.  B.  Faust, 
C.  Sealsfield,  Weimar,  1897. 

2  Gesammelte  Werkr,  25  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1893-95. 


580 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY  [PART  V. 


G.  Keller, 
1819-90. 


Der  griine 
Heinrich, 
I854-55- 


mental  stories  in  an  antiquarian  setting.  Felix  Dahn  (born 
I834),1  whose  scholarly  studies  in  German  antiquity  {.Die 
Konige  der  Germanen,  1861-72)  have  undisputed  value,  is  also 
more  historian  than  novelist.  '  The  most  popular  of  his  many 
novels,  Ein  Kampf  um  Rom  (1876),  the  subject  of  which  is 
the  Gothic  invasion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  is,  apart  from  its 
graphic  descriptions,  a  sensational  story  of  small  poetic  worth. 
Lastly,  Adolf  Hausrath  (born  1837),  a  theologian  who  writes 
under  the  pseudonym  of  George  Taylor,  is  the  author  of  the 
widely  read  historical  novels,  Antinous  (1880),  Klytia  (1883), 
and  Elfnede  (\%%s\ 

Gottfried  Keller,2  the  master-novelist  of  this  age,  and,  with- 
out question,  its  most  original  literary  personality,  was  a  Swiss. 
Keller,  who  was  born  at  Zurich,  on  July  19,  1819,  first  set 
his  heart  on  becoming  an  artist ;  he  spent  two  years  in  Munich 
studying  painting,  only  to  find  that  he  had  mistaken  his 
calling.  Resolving  to  begin  life  over  again,  he  attended,  in 
1848,  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  where  a  friendship  with 
Hermann  Hettner  (1821-82),  the  art-historian  and  author  of 
a  valuable  Literaturgeschichte  des  achtzehnten  Jahrhunderts 
(1856-70),  helped  him  to  discover  wherein  his  talent  lay. 
From  Heidelberg,  Keller  went  to  Berlin,  where,  in  the  years 
1850  to  1855,  he  seriously  turned  his  attention  to  authorship. 
Gedichte  he  had  already  published  in  1846,  but  they  received 
little  notice ;  five  years  later,  however,  appeared  a  collection 
of  Neuere  Gedichte  (1851),  which  contained  some  of  the  most 
original  lyric  poetry  of  the  time.  In  Berlin,  too,  Keller  wrote 
his  first  prose  work,  a  romance,  Der  griine  Heinrich  (1854-55), 
which  is,  in  great  part,  his  autobiography.  Heinrich  Lee,  a 
native  of  Zurich,  who  is  brought  up  by  his  mother,  is  pressed 
by  circumstances  into  the  career  which  Keller  himself  had 
chosen  as  a  young  man ;  he  goes  to  Munich  in  order  to 
study  art — and  into  this  meagre  story  are  woven  reminiscences 
and  episodes  from  the  author's  childhood.  Der  griine  Hein- 
rich is  thus  a  history  of  Heinrich's  apprenticeship  to  life,  his 
struggles,  temptations  and  dreams,  up  to  the  point  where,  grow- 
ing courageous  enough  to  face  the  truth,  that  he  has  missed 
his  vocation,  he  returns  to  his  native  land  and  becomes  re- 

1  Gesammelte  dichterische  Werke,  21  vols.,  and  ed.,  Leipzig,  1900. 

J  Gesammelte  Werke,  10  vols.,  Berlin,  1889-90.  Cp.  J.  Bachtold,  Gottfried 
Kellers  L^ben,  3  vols.,  Berlin,  1893-98,  O.  Brahm,  Gottfried  Keller,  Leipzig, 
1883,  and  F.  Baldensperger,  G.  Keller,  sa  vie  et  ses  aeuvres,  Paris,  1899. 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  581 

conciled  to  a  humbler  career.  But,  so  far  from  being  merely 
a  realistic  account  of  its  hero's  life,  Der  griine  Heinrich  is  rich 
in  poetic  beauties ;  it  might  even  be  described  as  a  Romantic 
novel,  a  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingen^  in  a  nineteenth-century 
setting,  and  appealing  directly  to  the  modern  reader.  Der 
griine  Heinrich  has,  it  is  true,  many  of  the  faults  of  the 
Romantic  novels :  it  shows,  in  particular,  little  regard  for 
form,  but  this  is  more  than  atoned  for  by  its  intimately  per- 
sonal character.  It  is  the  last  of  the  great  novels  which  stand 
in  the  main  line  of  development  of  German  national  fiction ; 
in  other  words,  the  type  of  novel  which  began  with  Agathon 
and  Wilhelm  Meister,  and  passed  through  the  hands  of  the 
Romanticists  —  from  Franz  Sternbald  to  Maler  Nolten  — 
seems  to  have  reached  a  close  with  Der  griine  Heinrich. 

In  the  last  years  of  his  stay  in  Berlin,  Keller  also  wrote  a 
volume  of  short  stories,  to  which  he  gave  the  title,  Die  Leute  Die  Leute 
von  Seldwyla  (18156).      General  attention  was  not,  however,  v™., 

i  i  •  ,,  -i  •  /.   Seldwyla, 

attracted  to  this  collection  until  the  appearance,  in  1874,  of  1856-74. 
a  new  edition  containing  many  additional  "Novellen." 

"  Seldwyla,"  says  the  author  in  his  introduction,  "  bedeutet  nach 
der  alteren  Sprache  einen  wonnigen  und  sonnigen  Ort,  und  so  ist 
auch  in  der  That  die  kleine  Stadt  dieses  Namens  gelegen  irgendwo 
in  der  Schweiz.  Sie  steckt  noch  in  den  gleichen  alten  Ringmau- 
ern  und  Thiirmen,  wie  vor  dreihundert  Jahren,  und  ist  also  immer 
das  gleiche  Nest ;  die  urspriingliche  tiefe  Absichtdieser  Anlage  wird 
durch  den  Umstand  erhartet,  dass  die  Griinder  der  Stadt  dieselbe 
eine  gute  halbe  Stunde  von  einem  schiffbaren  Flusse  angepflanzt, 
zum  deutlichen  Zeichen,  dass  nichts  daraus  werden  solle.  Aber 
schon  ist  sie  gelegen,  mitten  in  griinen  Bergen,  die  nach  der  Mit- 
tagseite  zu  offen  sind,  so  dass  wohl  die  Sonne  herein  kann,  aber 
kein  rauhes  Liiftchen.  Deswegen  gedeiht  auch  ein  ziemlich  guter 
Wein  rings  um  die  alte  Stadtmauer,  wahrend  hoher  hinauf  an  den 
Bergen  unabsehbare  Waldungen  sich  hinziehen,  welche  das  Ver- 
mogen  der  Stadt  ausmachen ;  denn  dies  ist  das  Wahrzeichen  und 
sonderbare  Schicksal  derselben,  dass  die  Gemeinde  reich  ist  und 
die  Biirgerschaft  arm,  und  zwar  so,  dass  kein  Mensch  zu  Seldwyla 
etwas  hat  und  niemand  weiss,  wovon  sie  seit  Jahrhunderten  eigent- 
lich  leben.  Und  sie  leben  sehr  lustig  und  guter  Dinge,  halten  die 
Gemtithlichkeit  fur  ihre  besondere  Kunst  und  wenn  sie  irgendwo 
hinkommen,  wo  man  anderes  Holz  brennt,  so  kritisieren  sie  zuerst 
die  dortige  Gemiithlichkeit  und  meinen,  ihnen  thue  es  doch  niemand 
zuvor  in  dieser  Hantierung."1 


1  Gcsammclte  Werke,  4,  7  f. 


582 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Ziirichtr 
Novelltn 
1878. 


Das  Sinn- 
gedicht, 

1881. 


A  fine  example  of  Keller's  work  is  the  story  in  the  first 
series  of  Die  Leute  von  Seldwyla,  entitled  Romeo  und  Julia 
auf  dem  Dorfe.  Two  peasants  disagree  over  the  boundary- 
line  between  their  fields,  and  the  quarrel  grows  until  it  ulti- 
mately becomes  a  family  feud.  Sali  and  Vrenchen,  the  Romeo 
and  Juliet  of  this  rustic  tragedy,  whose  union  is  rendered  im- 
possible by  the  enmity  of  the  parents,  resolve  to  have  a  last 
happy  day  together :  they  dance  to  their  heart's  content  at  a 
village  festival,  and  next  morning,  at  dawn,  throw  themselves 
into  the  river.  The  episode  is,  in  itself,  commonplace,  but 
Keller  has  encircled  it  with  a  wonderful  halo  of  poetry.  Un- 
obtrusively and  with  unconscious  art,  he  unfolds  his  story 
from  the  opening  scene  where  the  peasants  are  ploughing 
their  respective  fields,  to  the  catastrophe  on  the  river;  the 
reader  who  finds  himself  at  first  interested  and  amused  by 
Keller's  genial  touches  of  humour,  is  suddenly  confronted 
by  a  tragedy,  the  more  stupendous  because  related  without 
sentimentality  or  artificial  pathos.  And  if  we  turn  to  Die 
drei  gerechten  Kammmacher  in  the  same  volume,  or  to  Kleider 
machen  Leute  in  the  second  series  of  Die  Leute  von  Seldwyla, 
we  find  it  difficult  to  say  whether  Keller  was  greater  as  a 
writer  of  comedy  or  of  tragedy. 

In  1855,  Keller  returned  to  Switzerland,  and  in  1861,  was 
appointed  "  erster  Staatsschreiber  "  of  the  canton  of  Zurich,  a 
position  which — to  the  detriment,  it  is  to  be  feared,  of  his 
literary  work — he  occupied  for  fifteen  years.  In  1876,  he 
retired,  and  died  at  Zurich,  in  1890.  Sieben  Legenden,  a 
collection  of  Novellen  in  which  the  lives  of  certain  saints 
are  related  with  naive  ingenuousness  and  poetic  charm, 
appeared  in  1872,  and  in  1878,  the  magnificent  cycle  of 
Ziiricher  Novellen.  In  the  last-mentioned  collection  is  to 
be  found  the  story  of  the  Minnesinger,  Johann  Hadlaub, 
also  Das  Fdhnlein  der  sieben  Aufrechten,  a  humorous  picture 
of  Swiss  political  life  in  the  early  part  of  the  century,  and, 
most  masterly  and  characteristic  of  all  Keller's  works,  Der 
Landvogt  von  Greifensee.  In  the  course  of  1879  and 
1880,  Keller  revised  Der  griine  Heinrich,  endeavoured  to 
improve  its  defects  of  form,  and  made  the  denouement  less 
tragic.  Das  Sinngedicht^  another  volume  of  Novellen,  which 
are  threaded  together  on  a  common  theme,  the  choice  of  a 
wife,  was  published  in  1882,  an  edition  of  his  Gesammelte 


CHAP.  XIII.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  583 

Gedichte  in  1883.  Finally  Martin  Salander,  a  prosaic  and 
uninspired  novel  of  modern  Swiss  life,  closed  the  series  of 
his  works  in  1886. 

Gottfried  Keller  is  the  master  of  the  "  Novelle  " ;  he  is  the 
greatest  writer  of  short  stories  in  a  literature  which  is  extra- 
ordinarily rich  in  this  form  of  prose  fiction.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  in  a  few  words,  wherein  the 
peculiar  merit  of  Keller's  work  lies.  His  subjects,  as  in  the 
case  of  Romeo  und  Julia  auf  dem  Dorfe,  are  often  only 
anecdotes,  or  else  have  grown  naturally  out  of  anecdotes ; 
and,  as  far  as  artistic  form  is  concerned,  Keller  is  surpassed  by 
at  least  two  of  his  contemporaries,  Paul  Heyse,  at  his  best, 
and  C.  F.  Meyer.  It  is  rather  his  method  of  writing  that 
is  unique;  he  possesses,  in  a  higher  degree  than  any  other 
prose  author  of  modern  Europe,  an  epic  style ;  he  is  a  supreme 
example  of  what  Schiller  called  a  "  naive  "  genius.  As  a  prob- 
able result  of  his  early  training  as  a  painter,  all  that  Keller 
relates  or  describes  takes  visible  form  before  his  eyes;  his 
language,  in  other  words,  is  instinctively  plastic  and  con- 
crete. A  master  of  style,  as  Meyer  and  Nietzsche  are  masters, 
Keller  is  not,  but  his  prose  is  the  complete  expression  of  his 
individuality ;  it  is  strong  and  healthy,  and  reflects  the  sturdy 
independence  of  his  native  land.  During  his  lifetime,  Keller 
was  but  little  read  outside  Germany,  and  he  was  an  old 
man  before  he  attained  a  widespread  recognition  even  in 
German-speaking  lands.  In  his  writings,  as  in  his  character, 
there  was  a  certain  exuberance  of  strength  that  repelled  a 
public  accustomed  to  the  more  conventional  manner  of  his 
contemporaries;  it  was  left  to  a  later  generation  to  discover 
in  him  the  representative  German  novelist  of  the  century, 
and  the  truest  exponent  of  the  German  spirit. 

While    Keller  in   the   South  of  Germany  formed   a   link 
between  Romanticism  and  modern  literature,  another  master 
of  the    short   story   kept   the   connection    unbroken    in   the 
North.     Theodor  W.  Storm1  was  born  in   1817,  at  Husum  T.  Storm, 
on   the   coast  of  Schleswig,   and  throughout  his  life  he  re-  I8l7-88- 
mained  a  warm  patriot  of  that  province.      His  career  was 
uneventful.      He   occupied   various   posts   in  the  service  of 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  iovols.,  Brunswick,  1899.  Cp.  P.  Schutze,  T.  Storm, 
sein  Leben  und  seine  Dichtung,  Berlin,  1887,  and  E.  Schmidt,  Charakleristiken, 
i,  Berlin,  1886,  437  ff. 


584  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

the  State,  and  was  finally  appointed  Landvogt  and  Amtsrichter 
in  his  native  town.  In  1880,  he  retired  to  Hademarschen 
in  Holstein,  where  he  died  in  1888.  Less  pronounced  in 
his  individuality  than  Keller,  Storm  stood  wholly  in  the 
shadow  of  the  Romantic  traditions ;  he  took  over  many 
of  the  weaker  elements  in  the  literature  of  his  predecessors ; 
and  thus,  unlike  Keller's,  the  majority  of  his  "Novellen" 
already  begin  to  show  signs  of  age.  The  key  to  Storm's 
prose  work  is  his  lyric  poetry.  Like  his  model,  Eichen- 
dorff,  he  was,  in  the  first  instance,  a  poet,  and  his  Gedichte 
(1853)  give  him  a  high  place  among  German  singers.  A 
love  of  home  and  all  its  associations,  an  intense  if  some- 
what melancholy  delight  in  looking  back  upon  the  years  of 
youth,  and,  above  all,  a  delicacy  of  perception,  are  the  chief 
characteristics  of  Storm's  poetry.  And  these  features,  too, 
are  to  be  traced  in  his  prose  works.  He  loves  the  novel 

"Novel-  of  reminiscence,  and  all  his  finest  "Novellen"  are  stories  of 
a  past  happiness  that  lies  irrevocably  behind  the  narrator, 
and  is  seen  through  a  veil  of  resignation.  Storm's  earlier 
"Novellen,"  such  as  Im  Sonnenschein  (1854),  Ein  griines 
Blatt  (1855),  and,  best  known  of  all,  Immensee  (1852),  are 
purely  Romantic  in  tone  and  spirit;  but,  as  he  grew  older, 
his  style  changed.  The  passive,  retrospective  novel  gave  place 
to  a  more  active  and  dramatic  form  of  romance.  To  this 
group  belong  Psyche  (1877),  a  story  in  imitation  of  Paul 
Heyse,  Aquis  submersus  (1877),  which  is  perhaps  his  master- 
piece, and  Renate  (1878).  A  number  of  these  novels  are 
classed  together  as  "  Chroniknovellen,"  and  include,  besides 
Aquis  submersus  and  Renate,  EekenhoJ "(1880),  Zur  Chronik  von 
Grieshuus  (1884),  and  Ein  Fest  auf  Haderslevhuus  (1886); 
they  are  written  in  an  archaic  style,  and  preserve,  with  con- 
siderable faithfulness,  the  character  of  old  chronicles.  In  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  Storm  wrote  stories  on  more  realistic 
lines,  such  as  John  Rievf  (1886),  Der  Schimmelreiter  (1888), 
but  his  art  was  too  romantic,  readily  to  adapt  itself  to  modern 
problems. 

Women  The  fiction  of  this  period  was,  to  a  large  extent,  written  by 

women,  eminent  among  whom  were  Fanny  Lewald  (1811-89) 
and  Grafin  Ida  Hahn-Hahn  (1805-80).  Both  grew  up  under 
the  influence  of  the  Young  German  School,  but,  while  the 
former  never  lost  touch  with  that  coterie,  the  Grafin  Hahn- 


CHAP.  XIII.]       THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  585 

Hahn  early  turned  away  from  it  and,  in  1850,  became  a 
Catholic.  An  aristocrat  herself,  the  Grafin  Hahn-Hahn  loved 
to  depict  aristocrats  of  mind  and  feeling,  strong  passionate 
natures,  who  fall  victims  to  the  tyranny  of  circumstance. 
Her  most  characteristic  novels  were  collected  in  1844,  under 
the  title  Aus  der  Gesellschaft  (12  vols.)  The  novels  of  Ottilie 
von  Wildermuth  (1817-77),  a  Swabian  writer,  do  not  rise 
above  the  provincial  interests  of  her  home,  but  to  Luise  von 
Francois  (1817-93)  we  owe  Die  letzte  Reckenburgerin  (1871), 
one  of  the  outstanding  German  romances  of  the  time. 

Still  another  side  of  German  literature  in  the  period  between  W.  Jordan, 
1848  and  1870  is  to  be  seen  in  the  work  of  Wilhelm  Jordan,   born  I8l9> 
who  was  born   at   Insterburg   in  the  same   year  as    Keller. 
Independent  and  original,  a  writer  of  undeniable  poetic  im- 
agination,   Jordan    has    suffered    under   the    mediocrity   and 
intellectual    poverty    of   his    time.     He   had  already  written 
philosophical   poems    before   the    Revolution   of   1848,    and 
Demiurgos  (1852-54),  his  first  epic,  is  essentially  didactic  in 
tone;  the  materialistic  philosophy,  which  men  like  Biichner 
had  introduced  from  England,  here  reappears  in  all  its  prosaic 
baldness.      Jordan's  chief  work   is  Die  Nibelunge,   an  epic,  Die  Nibe- 
which  was  published  in  two  parts,   Sigfridssage  and  Hilde-  lu^^ 
brands  Heimkehr  in  1868  and  1874.     Owing  to  its  strongly 
marked  patriotic  "Tendenz,"  the  epic  at  once  met  with  success, 
and  the  poet  himself  wandered  from  town  to  town,  reciting 
it  like  a  medieval  "  Spielmann."     Die  Nibelunge  is  written  in 
alliterative  verse,  and  contains  here  and  there  passages  which 
recall  the  grandiose  simplicity  of  the  Germanic   "  Helden- 
dichtung."     But  Jordan's  effects  are  too  calculated  to  make 
good  poetry,  and  Die  Nibelunge  is  marred,  even  more  than 
DemiurgoSy  by  lapses  of  taste  and  arid  stretches  of  unpoetic 
philosophy,  which  a  genuinely  creative  imagination  would  have 
avoided.     As  a  dramatist  (Durchs  Ohrt  1870)  and  a  novelist 
(Die  Sebalds,  1885),  he  has  kept  in  traditional  grooves.     More 
effectually  than  Jordan,   Karl   Simrock  (1802-76),   a  patient   K.Sim- 
student  of  Germany's  past,  who  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  r^ck»  l8°2" 
busy  life  translating  the  masterpieces  of  the   Middle  High 
German    epic,   has  helped  to  make  the  modern   generation 
familiar  with  the  figures  of  medieval  literature. 


586 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   MUNICH    GROUP.       HISTORY   AND    CRITICISM. 

PREVIOUS  to  the  inroads  of  realism  from  France,  the  German 
literature  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
strangely  free  from  schools  or  coteries.  This  in  itself  was  a 
proof  that  the  vitality  of  German  poetry — and,  north  of  the 
Alps,  vitality  of  this  kind  is  almost  always  accompanied  by  a  dis- 
play of  party  spirit — was  at  a  low  ebb.  In  the  epoch  before 
the  Franco-German  war,  only  one  group  of  writers  existed  to 
whom  the  word  "  school "  may  be  applied,  namely,  the  poets 
whom  the  Bavarian  king,  Maximilian  II.,  gathered  round  him 
in  Munich,  between  1850  and  1860.  As,  however,  almost  all 
the  men  of  this  circle  were  North  Germans,  it  cannot  be  said 
that  they  formed  a  Bavarian  school  comparable  to  the  Swabian 
school  of  the  preceding  generation ;  nor  were  the  members 
bound  as  closely  by  common  principles  as  Uhland  and  his 
friends  had  been.  The  general  tendency  of  the  group  was 
towards  conservativism  ;  they  raised  a  bulwark  against  the  un- 
restrained aspirations  of  the  age,  held  up  an  ideal  of  literary 
form  to  a  generation  that  was  chiefly  interested  in  ideas,  and 
inaugurated  that  movement  which,  later  on,  was  to  make  so 
stubborn  a  stand  against  the  naturalistic  tendencies  of  the  last 
quarter  of  the  century.  Thus,  the  importance  of  the  Munich 
poets  was  mainly  negative,  and  with  the  possible  exception  of 
half-a-dozen  stories  by  Paul  Heyse,  they  left  nothing  that  is 
signally  great.  Leaders  in  an  age  of  mediocrity,  they  infused 
no  fresh  life  into  German  literature,  but  they  prevented  it  from 
sinking  below  a  certain  level  of  excellence. 

E.  Geibel,         Emanuel  Geibel,  whose  work  has  already  been  discussed, 

1815-84.        was  cane(j  to  Munich  by  the  King  of  Bavaria  in  1851,  and 

at  once  became  the  head  of  the  coterie;  and,  as  we  have 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  587 

seen,  the  years  which  he  spent  in  Munich  were  the  most 
productive  of  his  career.  In  1861,  he  published  a  Munchner 
Dichterbuch,  a  belated  "  Musenalmanach,"  which  served  as 
a  bond  of  union  for  the  members  of  the  group.  Geibel  gave 
the  tone  to  the  Munich  lyric  as  represented  by  Heyse  and 
Greif;  his  epic  ballads  had  on  ScheffePs  work  a  greater 
influence  than  even  Kinkel's  epics,  and  his  undramatic  plays 
were  the  models  for  the  many  iambic  tragedies  that  were 
performed  in  the  Bavarian  national  theatre. 

The  house  of  Graf  Adolf  Friedrich  von  Schack1  (1815-  A.  F.  von 
94),  a  native  of  Mecklenburg,  who  came  to  Munich  in  1855, 
was  the  chief  centre  of  literary  life  in  the  Bavarian  capital. 
Schack's  original  productions  —  he  wrote  .two  novels  and 
several  plays  —  do  not  display  much  talent.  His  verses, 
however  (Gedichte,  1867),  occasionally  strike  an  individual 
note,  and  his  Ndchte  des  Orients  (1874),  a  philosophic  poem, 
in  which  he  laid  down  his  own  personal  creed,  contains 
poetry  of  some  merit.  Schack  was  an  inveterate  traveller  and 
loved  strange  literatures ;  his  translations,  the  Heldensagen  des 
Firdusi  (1851)  as  well  as  those  from  the  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese, are  more  successful  than  his  original  work.  He  also 
wrote,  it  may  be  noted,  an  excellent  Geschichte  der  dramatischen 
Litteratur  und  Kunst  in  Spanien  (1845-46).  Schack  played  a 
larger  role  as  an  art-patron  than  as  a  man  of  letters,  and 
his  unsurpassable  collection  of  modern  German  pictures,  now 
known  as  the  Schack  Gallery,  will  keep  his  name  alive  when 
his  writings  are  forgotten. 

After  Geibel,  the  most  widely  read  lyric  poet  of  the  circle 
was  Friedrich  Bodenstedt  (1819-9 a),2  who,  in  1851,  published  F.  Boden- 
his  Lieder  des  Mirza  Schaffy,  a  volume  of  oriental  poetry,  ^t2edt|  I8l9~ 
or  rather  imitations  of  oriental  poetry.  Bodenstedt  was  the 
last  poet  who,  following  in  Riickert's  footsteps,  imitated  the 
West-ostliche  Divan;  but  he  had  not  Riickert's  genius,  and 
it  is  now  difficult  to  understand  what  made  the  Lieder 
des  Mirza  Schaffy  the  most  popular  book  of  poetry  of  its 
time.  Although  there  is  little  genuine  lyric  inspiration  in 
Bodenstedt's  verse,  he  had  at  his  command  an  easy  flow 
of  language,  and  he  had  sufficiently  immersed  himself  in  the 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  and  ed.,  8  vols.,  Stuttgart,  1891. 

8  Gesammelte  Schriften,  12  vols.  (incomplete),  Berlin,  1865-69;  the  Lieder 
des  Mirza  Schaffy  are  at  present  in  their  i52nd  edition. 


588  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

oriental  spirit — he  spent  several  years  in  the  East — to  adapt  it 
to  his  ideas.  His  readers,  who  did  not  question  the  genuine- 
ness of  his  oriental  colouring,  delighted  to  discover  familiar 
maxims  and  truisms  beneath  the  strange  disguise  in  which 
he  clothed  them.  The  success  of  this  work  was  fatal  to 
Bodenstedt ;  he  remained  all  his  life  the  "  poet  of  Mirza 
Schaffy" ',  his  dramas  and  his  graphically  written  books  of  travel 
were  little  read.  Like  all  the  poets  of  his  generation,  he 
was  also  a  translator,  and  made  admirable  versions  of  Russian 
poets  as  well  as  of  Shakespeare. 

Other  poets  who  stood  in  more  or  less  close  relationship 
to  Geibel  were  Julius  Grosse  (1828  -  1902),  whose  work 
H.  Leut-  has  few  lasting  qualities,  Heinrich  Leuthold  (1827-79),  and 
hold.  1827-  Hermann  Lingg  (born  1820).  Of  these  Leuthold  was  un- 
questionably the  most  gifted ;  but  his  life  was  unhappy 
and  tragic,  and  he  ultimately  went  insane.  Both  in  his 
Gedichte  (I879)1  and  in  the  epic,  Penthesilea, — which,  how- 
ever, like  Lenau's  epics,  is  essentially  lyric  in  tone  and 
style, — Leuthold  towers  high  above  his  friends.  Hermann 
H.  Lingg,  Lingg  (born  1820),  on  the  other  hand,  corresponds  more 
born  1820.  ciose]y  to  the  ideal  poet  at  which  the  Munich  school  aimed  ; 
he  was  "discovered"  by  Geibel,  who  drew  attention  to  his 
first  collection  of  Gedichte  in  1853.  As  a  poet,  Lingg  has  un- 
doubted ability,  but,  writing  in  an  age  in  which  originality  was 
little  prized,  he  was  tempted  to  produce  too  much.  His  ambi- 
tious epic  in  ottave  rime,  Die  Volkerwandeiung  (1866-68), 
notwithstanding  poetic  swing  and  beauty  of  language,  fails  to 
bring  order  and  concentration  into  so  vast  a  theme;  and 
his  dramas  are  also  without  clearly  marked  outlines.  He  has 
written  little  in  prose — a  handful  of  historical  "  Novellen  " — 
but  they  are  wholly  deficient  in  the  plastic  qualities  to  be 
found  in  the  novels  of  a  master  like  C.  F.  Meyer.  Similar  to 
M.  Greif,  Lingg's  is  the  talent  of  Martin  Greif  (pseudonym  for  Hermann 
Frey'  bom  jg.^2  Greif>s  lyrics  (Gedichte,  ist  ed.,  1868) 
are  strongly  influenced  by  the  Romantic  traditions,  and  his 
compass  is  narrow,  but  he  has  written  a  number  of  vigorous 
songs  in  the  tone  of  the  Volkslied.  His  dramas — all  of  them 
on  historical  subjects — have,  on  the  other  hand,  few  dramatic 
qualities,  and  are  written  without  adequate  knowledge  of  the 

1  Edited  by  J.  Baechtold,  3rd  ed.,  Frauenfeld,  1884. 
a  Gesammelte  Werke,  3  vols.,  Leipzig,  1895-96. 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  589 

stage.  Although  not  personally  connected  with  the  Munich 
group,  Otto  Roquette  (1824-96)  was  a  writer  whose  many-  o.  Ro- 
sided  activity — lyrics,  tales  in  verse  and  prose,  dramas,  literary 
criticism — bears  a  close  resemblance  to  theirs.  But  just  as 
Bodenstedt  is  associated  with  Mirza  Schaffy,  so  Roquette  is 
now  chiefly  remembered  as  the  author  of  Waldmeisters  Braut- 
fahrt,  a  charming  Marchen,  which  appeared  in  1851,  and  has 
gone  through  more  than  sixty  editions. 

Like  Bodenstedt,  Joseph  Viktor  von  Scheffel  (i 826-86)  x  J.  V.  von 
was  the  victim  of  his  popularity.  His  epic,  Der  Trompeter 
von  Sdkkingen,  which  was  written  in  Italy  and  published  in 
1854,  was  one  of  the  most  widely  read  books  of  its  day, 
and  is  generally  regarded  as  the  embodiment  of  Scheffel's 
poetic  work.  It  is  a  fresh,  unrestrained  poem,  interspersed 
with  lyrics,  and  written  in  the  sentimental  style  which  was  the 
least  valuable  heritage  of  Romanticism  ;  its  poetic  beauties  lie 
on  the  surface,  and  its  humour  is  of  that  superficial  kind  that 
makes  no  claims  on  the  imagination.  The  secret  of  Scheffel's 
charm  was  his  spontaneousness ;  he  did  not  pay  strict  observ- 
ance to  the  technique  of  the  epic,  nor  did  he  hamper  himself 
by  following  acknowledged  models.  And  the  result  was, 
not  perhaps  an  epic  of  abiding  worth,  but  at  least  a  poem 
that  expressed  exactly  the  easily  satisfied  tastes  and  ideals  of 
his  time.  A  historical  romance,  Ekkehard,  eine  Geschichte  aus  Ekkehard, 
dem  zehnten  Jahrhundert  (1857),  stands  upon  a  higher  plane.  l857> 
Scheffel  made  a  careful  study  of  the  age  when  the  monastery 
of  St  Gall  was  a  solitary  light  in  intellectual  darkness;  he 
also  helped  to  edit  the  Waltharilied.  Ekkehard,  the  hero 
of  which  is  the  young  monk  who  wrote  the  Waltharilied, 
is  an  excellent  historical  novel  of  its  kind,  but,  in  justice 
to  Scheffel's  predecessors,  the  fact  cannot  be  overlooked 
that  he  was  deficient  in  the  poetic  seriousness  of  Scott, 
or  of  a  disciple  of  Scott  like  W.  Alexis;  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  does  Ekkehard  fulfil  those  essentially  modern  require- 
ments, according  to  which  sentimentality  and  romantic,  not 
to  say  "Young  German,"  trivialities,  should  be  excluded  from 
a  picture  of  a  bygone  age.  But  it  is  an  interesting  story, 
and,  compared  with  the  attempts  of  Ebers  and  Dahn  to 
rehabilitate  the  historical  novel  on  antiquarian  lines,  a  master- 

1  Cp.  J.  Proelss,  Scheffels  Lebcn  und  Dichten,  Berlin,  1887.      A  collected 
edition  of  Scheffel's  works  has  not  yet  appeared. 


590 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Scheffel's 
successors. 


F.  W. 

Weber, 
1813-94. 


W.  Hertz. 
1835-1902. 


piece.  Less  important  were  Scheffel's  historical  "Novellen," 
Hugideo  (published  1884),  a  story  of  the  fifth  century,  and 
JuniperuSy  Geschichte  eines  Kreuzfahrers  (1868).  Frau  Aven- 
tiure,  Lieder  aus  Heinrich  von  Ofterdingens  Zeit  (1863), 
although  also  anachronistic  in  its  sentiment,  contains  some 
of  Scheffel's  finest  lyrics.  Gaudeamus  (1867),  again,  offers 
but  a  poor  equivalent  for  the  classical  German  drinking-song, 
and,  in  general,  the  poet's  "beer-humour"  and  his  parodies, 
which,  in  their  day,  won  great  applause,  are  without  literary 
significance.  Scheffel  was  not  formally  called  to  Munich  by 
the  Bavarian  king,  but  he  lived  there  for  several  years,  in  in- 
timate touch  with  members  of  the  group,  as  well  as  in  Italy 
with  Paul  Heyse.  His  books  were  published  at  widely  distant 
dates,  but  most  of  them  were  written  between  1850  and  1860. 
Scheffel  has  had  many  imitators.  The  contentment  with 
easily  won  success,  and  the  want  of  serious  poetic  ideals, 
which  in  him  were  a  grave  source  of  weakness,  are  to  be 
found  accentuated  in  his  followers.  Of  these  the  chief  is 
Julius  Wolff  (born  1834),  the  author  of  a  large  number  of 
sentimental  romances  in  verse,  such  as  Der  Rattenfdnger  von 
Hameln  (1875),  Der  wilde  Jdger  (1877),  an(^  Tannhauser 
(1880).  Rudolf  Baumbach  (born  1840),  again,  is  a  poet  of 
more  individuality  than  Wolff,  and  his  humour  is  less  trivial 
than  Scheffel's.  An  enthusiastic  mountaineer,  Baumbach  loves 
Alpine  sagas,  and  such  a  saga  forms  the  subject  of  Zlatorog 
(1877),  his  best  known  poem,  while  his  lyrics  (Lieder  eines 
fahrenden  Gesellen,  1878-80)  re-echo  the  sentimental  tone  of 
Scheffel's  songs.  A  Westphalian  Catholic,  F.  W.  Weber 
(1813-94),  wrote,  in  1878,  an  epic,  Dreizehnlinden,  the 
enormous  popularity  of  which  was  chiefly  due  to  its  religious 
tendency.  But  Weber  was  a  manly  and  independent  poet, 
and  not  unworthy  of  comparison — in  his  Gedichte  (1881), 
rather  than  in  his  epic — with  his  great  countrywoman,  Annette 
von  Droste-Hiilshoff.  A  refined  poetic  talent,  no  less  sterling 
because  expended,  for  the  most  part,  on  translations,  is  that 
of  Wilhelm  Hertz  (1835-1902),  who  was  one  of  the  original 
contributors  to  Geibel's  Dichterbuch,  Hertz  continued  the 
work  Karl  Simrock  had  begun ;  with  a  rare  power  of  entering 
into  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  Middle  High  German 
poets,  he  translated  both  Gottfried's  Tristan  (1877)  and 
Wolfram's  Parzival  (1898). 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  591 

The  most  serious  vein  in  the  literature  of  this  age  was  a  Pessimism, 
pessimistic  one.  About  1850,  as  we  have  seen,  Arthur  Schop- 
enhauer came  into  his  kingdom  in  German  intellectual  life ; 
and,  from  1850  until  the  last  decade  of  the  century,  his  phil- 
osophy was  a  dominating  force.  Neo-Kantism  and  positivism, 
it  is  true,  soon  began  to  shake  the  supremacy  of  his  system, 
but,  in  some  form,  pessimism  long  remained  the  inspiration  of 
literature  and  art.  In  1869,  Eduard  von  Hartmann  (born  1834) 
published  his  Philosophic  des  Unbewussten — a  work  which,  as 
regards  popularity,  might  be  compared  with  the  writings  of  the 
"  Popularphilosophen  "  in  the  eighteenth  century  —  and  won 
new  friends  for  Schopenhauer's  ideas  by  bringing  them  into 
harmony  with  Hegelian  idealism.  Literature  generally — even 
when  it  was  most  joyous  and  apparently  careless — could  not 
avoid  a  pessimistic  tinge;  the  humour  of  the  Munich  poets 
was,  in  its  lack  of  sincerity,  only  a  cloak  for  inward  hopeless- 
ness. During  these  decades,  pessimism  found  a  characteristic 
expression  in  the  Gedichte  (1870)  of  a  Moravian,  Heinrich 
Landesmann,  who  writes  under  the  pseudonym  of  Hieronymus  H.  Lorm, 
Lorm  (born  1821).  Early  deprived  of  the  sense  of  hearing,  born  l82I- 
subsequently,  also  of  sight,  Lorm  was  more  justified  than  his 
fellow-poets  in  seeing  the  dark  side  of  things,  and  a  note  of 
despair  dominates  all  his  poetry.  Heinrich  Leuthold,  whose 
work  has  already  been  mentioned,  belongs  also  to  this  group, 
and  a  bitter  cynicism  inspires  the  epic,  Der  neue  Tanhduser 
(1869),  by  E.  Grisebach  (born  1845).  Another  sombre  poet 
is  Leuthold's  fellow  -  countryman,  Ferdinand  von  Schmid 
(1823-88),  known  to  literature  as  "Dranmor."1  The  exotic  F.  von 
elements  in  Schmid's  poetry  are  to  be  traced  to  the  fact  that  fu^n- 
he  passed  the  latter  part  of  his  life  in  South  America.  mor"), 

Pessimistic,  too,  are  the  writings  of  one  of  the  leading  poets  l8a3-88. 
of  this   time,   an  Austrian,   Robert    Hamerling  (1830- 89),* 
although  in  Hamerling's  poetry  the  conflict  had  already  begun   R-  Hamer- 
between   pessimism   and   a   more    buoyant  outlook   on   life.   ^g> '  3° 
When,  in   1857,  Hamerling  published  his  first  collection  of 
poems,  his  Sangesgruss  vom  Strande  der  Adria,  he  was  pro- 
.fessor  in  a  school  at  Trieste;  in  1866,  the  income  from  his 

1  Gesammelte  Dichtungen,  3rd  ed.,  Berlin,  1879. 

2  Werke,  edited  by  M.    M.    Rabenlechner,  4  vols.,   2nd   ed.,   Hamburg, 
1901.    Cp.  M.  M.  Rabenlechner,  Hamerlings  Leben  und  Werke,  Hamburg, 
1897. 


592  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

writings  allowed  him  to  give  up  teaching,  whereupon  he  made 
Graz  his  home.  His  earlier  poems,  the  Sangesgruss,  Venus  in 
^^7(1858),  Ein  Schivanenlied  der  Romantik  (1862),  have  a 
certain  rhythmic  charm  which,  however,  hardly  makes  up  for 
the  poverty  of  the  thoughts  expressed.  In  1866,  and  in  1869, 
Hamerling  published  the  two  epics  on  which  his  reputation 
in  rests,  Ahasver  in  Rom  and  Der  Konig  von  Sion,  both  of 

Rom,  1866.  which  found  enthusiastic  admirers.  It  is  questionable,  how- 
ever, whether  he  has  here  succeeded  in  solving  the  problem 
as  to  what  form  the  modern  epic  should  take ;  or  even, 
whether  he  has  justified  its  existence  in  modern  literature. 
The  subject  of  Ahasver  in  Rom^  the  Wandering  Jew,  is  one 
that  has  fascinated  many  poets,  and  Hamerling  has  at  least 
given  it  an  original  setting.  He  has  chosen  the  epoch  during 
which  Christianity  was  encroaching  upon  paganism,  and  has 
brought  Ahasuerus  face  to  face  with  Nero,  amidst  the  luxury 
of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  the  brilliant  colouring  of  his  scenes 
recalls  the  pictures  of  his  fellow-countryman,  Hans  Makart, 
but  the  personages  and  events  are  depicted  with  a  theatrical 
striving  after  effect,  which  makes  it  difficult  to  believe  in  the 
poet's  artistic  sincerity.  Like  so  many  Austrians,  Hamerling 
was  unable  to  express  all  that  he  would  have  liked  to  say ; 
his  ambitions  outstripped  his  power  to  realise  them,  and  thus 
fine  ideas — the  identification  of  the  Wandering  Jew  with  Cain, 
for  instance — which  are  full  of  possibilities,  remain  undevel- 
oped. His  grandiose  scenes  do  not  bring  conviction  with 
them,  and  his  pathos  is  too  often  merely  sounding  rhetoric. 
The  same  breach  between  conception  and  execution  is  to  be 

Der  K9nig  observed  in  the  second  epic,  Der  Konig  von  Sion,  the  subject 
of  which  is  the  rising  of  the  Anabaptists  in  Miinster,  in  1534. 
Here,  however,  a  more  realistic  method  than  in  Ahasver  was 
not  only  possible  but  necessary,  and  brought  a  wholesome 
restraint  to  bear  on  Hamerling's  imagination.  Der  Konig  von 
Sion  was  followed  by  another  epic,  Amor  und  Psyche  (1882), 
and  by  a  satirical  poem  on  modern  life,  Homunculus  (1888). 
Hamerling  also  experimented  as  a  dramatist,  but  Danton  und 
Robespierre  (1871)  is  only  a  prose  epic  in  dramatic  form; 
while  a  philosophic  novel,  Aspasia  (1876),  might  be  compared 
with  one  of  Wieland's  Greek  romances,  remodelled  in  the  style 
of  the  modern  antiquarian  novel. 

The  writer  of  the   Munich  group  who  has  had  the  most 


CHAP.  XIV.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY. 


593 


permanent  influence  upon  his  generation,  is  Paul  Heyse.1  P.  Heyse, 
That  Heyse,  who  was  born  in  Berlin  in  1830,  should  have  born  l83°* 
chosen  the  Romance  languages  for  study  at  the  university,  is 
characteristic  of  his  peculiar  cast  of  mind :  he  is  what  Wieland 
was  in  the  eighteenth  century,  an  upholder  of  Romance  rather 
than  Germanic  ideals  in  literature.  In  1852,  Heyse  spent  a 
year  in  Italy,  which  finally  decided  his  tastes ;  he  had,  how- 
ever, before  this  published  a  tragedy,  Francesco,  da  Rimini  I 
(1850),  and  a  couple  of  stories  in  verse,  and,  in  1854, 
King  Maximilian  invited  him  to  Munich,  which,  since  then, 
has  remained  his  home.  Although  Heyse  is  essentially  a 
novelist,  he  has  also  written  over  thirty  dramas,  which  have  Dramas, 
only  exceptionally  been  successful  on  the  stage.  The  reason 
of  his  failure  as  a  dramatist  is  not  unfamiliarity  with  the 
requirements  of  the  theatre,  but  the  fact  that  at  the  time 
when  most  of  his  plays  were  written,  the  drama  was  still 
emancipating  itself  from  the  classic  traditions,  and  had  not 
adapted  itself  to  modern  requirements.  At  the  same  time, 
plays  such  as  Hans  Lange  (1866)  and  Colberg  (1868) — to 
mention  only  two — are  masterpieces  of  their  kind.  As  a 
lyric  poet,2  Heyse  has  also  never  been  esteemed  as  he  de- 
serves, while  his  versions  of  modern  Italian  poets — especially 
of  Giusti  (1875)  and  Leopardi  (1878) — stand  on  a  level  with 
Riickert's  oriental  translations. 

The  first  volume  of  Heyse's  Novellen^  which  appeared  in  Novellen. 
1855,  contained  L Arrabbiata,  a  masterly  story  of  Italian  life, 
which  he  has  perhaps  never  surpassed.  Since  this  date,  he 
has  published  many  volumes  of  short  stories  —  Meraner 
Novellen  (1864),  Moralische  Novellen  (1869  and  1878),  Trou- 
badour-Novellen  (1882),  to  mention  only  a  few  characteristic 
collections  —  which  display  unfailing  variety  and  originality 
of  invention.  The  charm  of  Heyse's  stories  is  essentially  one 
of  outward  form :  with  an  art  that  is  rare  in  German  literature, 
he  moulds  and  proportions  his  plots.  His  sense  of  beauty, 
whether  physical  beauty  or  that  of  character,  is  extremely 
delicate ;  and  although  he  is  fond  of  depicting  strong  passions 
and  piquant  psychological  problems,  the  laws  of  artistic  form 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  29  vols.,  Berlin,  1897-1901.  Cp.  Heyse's  ownjugend- 
erinnerungen  vnd  Bekenntnisse,  Berlin,  1900,  O.  Kraus,  P.  Heyses  Novellen  vnd 
Romane,  Frankfort,  1888,  and  G.  Brandes.  Samlede  Skrifter,  7,  Copenhagen, 
1901,  314  ff. 

J  Cp.  especially  his  Neue  Gedichte  und  Jugendlieder,  Berlin,  1897. 

2   P 


594  THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

are  never  violated.  Thus,  with  the  genius  of  a  sculptor  or 
a  painter,  Heyse  has  given  the  German  "Novelle"  a  grace 
and  elegance  which  one  looks  for  in  vain  in  other  writers  of 
the  time ;  but  sometimes  these  Romance  qualities  are  bought 
at  the  sacrifice  of  that  Germanic  depth  and  sincerity  which 
make  Keller  and  Storm  great.  Heyse's  art,  like  all  Romance 
art,  is  objective ;  and  his  attention  is  often  too  much  taken  up 
with  external  harmony  to  attend  to  inward  truth.  His  style, 
which  it  was  formerly  the  custom  to  compare  with  Goethe's,  is 
superficially  clever  rather  than  simple  and  sincere.  Heyse  is 
at  his  best  in  those  Novellen  which  describe  Italian  life ;  his 
Italian  women,  with  their  intense  feelings  and  luxuriant  beauty, 
are  drawn  with  perfect  objectivity  and  consequently  are  truest 
to  nature.  His  German  characters,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
influenced  by  the  literary  traditions  of  the  Young  German 
School,  and,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  are  either  brilliantly 
witty  or  metaphysical  and  sentimental. 

The  sense  of  form  and  proportion  which,  in  the  short  story, 
stood  Heyse  in  such  good  stead,  forsook  him  when  he  wrote 
novels  on  a  larger  scale ;  the  wide  canvas  which  he  selected 
Kinder  der  for  works  like  Kinder  der  Welt  (1873)  and  Im  Paradiese 
(J876)  afforded  him  more  space  than  he  had  power  to  utilise 
for  the  development  of  his  figures.  But  the  former  of  these 
is,  like  Spielhagen's  Sturmflut,  one  of  the  representative 
novels  of  its  epoch ;  the  passionate  conflict  between  the 
"  children  of  the  world "  and  the  "  children  of  God,"  which, 
in  1872,  was  called  forth  by  Strauss's  Der  alte  und  der  neue 
Glaube,  is  here  fought  out,  while  pessimism  and  the  rise  of 
social  democracy  stand  in  the  background  of  the  story. 
In  spite  of  defective  construction  and  a  conventional  plot, 
Kinder  der  Welt  consequently  gives  an  excellent  idea  of 
the  condition  of  Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
empire.  Im  Paradiese  is  a  novel  of  artist  life  in  Munich, 
which  Heyse  describes  in  interesting  detail,  but  the  basis 
of  the  story  is  inferior  to  that  of  its  predecessor.  Der 
Roman  der  Stiftsdame  (1886),  a  masterly  study  of  character, 
is  more  o'f  an  extended  "  Novelle "  than  a  "  Roman " : 
while  Merlin  (1892)  and  Uber  alien  Gipfeln  (1895)  are 
"  Tendenz "  novels  directed  against  the  modern  spirit  in 
German  literature. 

After  Heyse,  the  most  talented  writer  of  short  stories  in 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  595 

the  Munich  circle  was  W.  H.  Riehl  (1823-97),  whose  Kul-  w.  H. 
turgeschichtliche   Novellen    appeared    in    1856;    while    Hans   Riehl» 
Hopfen   (born    1835)  shows  in  his  vigorous  realistic  novels 
more  sympathy  than  any  of  his  friends  with  modern  ideals. 
Adolf  Wilbrandt   and   Wilhelm   Jensen    (both    born     1837)  A.  Wil- 
are  two  North  Germans  whose  work  bears   many  points  of  *  'andt> 
resemblance  to  that  of  the   Munich   School.      The  former, 
a  native  of  Rostock,  is  distinguished  both  as  dramatist  and 
novelist.      His    comedies,   the   most   ambitious  of  which    is 
Die  Maler  (1872),  are  marred  by  a  failing  of  his  time,  an 
inability  to  regard  literature  with  the  seriousness  of  the  artist. 
A  classical  tragedy,  Arria  und  Messalina  (1874),  stands  far 
behind  Der  Meister  von  Palmyra  (1889),  although  the  latter 
drama  is  too  heavily  weighted  with  metaphysical  ideas  for 
the  purposes  of  the  stage.     Wilbrandt,  however,  is  less  of  a 
dramatist  than  a  novelist.     Adams  Sohne,  which  appeared  in 
1890,  was  followed,  in   1892,  by  Hermann  Ifinger,  a  novel 
of  artist-life  in  Munich,  Die  Osterinsel  (1895),  Die  Rothen- 
burger  (1895),  ar>d  Hildegard  Mahlmann  (1897) — all  books 
which  treat  of  themes  of  absorbing  interest  to  the  author's 
contemporaries.     In  some  of  his   early  stories,  such  as  Die 
braune  Erica  (1868),  Wilhelm  Jensen  gave  promise  of  rival-  W.Jensen, 
ling  Storm,  but  his  many  long  novels  are  wholly  deficient  in   bom  l837- 
concentration. 

The  most  eminent  humourist  of  this  period  was  Wilhelm  Humour- 
Raabe  (born  I83I),1  whose  charming  idyll,  Die  Chronik  der  lsts> 
Sperlingsgasse  (1857),  first  made  him  generally  known.  Of 
his  many  stories,  the  most  characteristic  are  Der  Hungerpastor 
(1864),  Abu  Telfan  (1867),  and  Der  Schiidderump  (1870). 
Raabe  has  points  of  resemblance  to  Jean  Paul,  whom  he 
follows  often  too  faithfully ;  the  construction  of  his  novels 
is  naively  artificial,  and  their  style  old-fashioned.  Like  Jean 
Paul,  too,  Raabe  obtrudes  his  personality  on  the  reader; 
but  he  has  little  of  his  master's  optimistic  faith  in  humanity, 
his  humour  being  in  many  cases  only  a  cloak  for  irony. 
Other  humourists  of  this  age  are  Wilhelm  Busch  (born  1832), 
whose  Max  und  Moritz  (1865),  Der  heilige  Antonius  (1870), 
and  Die  fromme  Helene  (1871)  have  become  household  books, 
and  Heinrich  Seidel  (born  1842),  the  author  of  Leberecht 
Hiihnchen  (1882). 

1  Cp.  P.  Gerber,  IF.  Raabe,  Leipzig,  1897. 


596 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


The  period  during  which  the  Munich  School  dominated 
German  literature  was,  although  the  least  literary  of  the 
century,  one  of  marked  activity  in  other  fields ;  it  was  the  era 
in  which  Germany,  under  Bismarck,  gradually  fought  her  way 
into  the  front  rank  of  European  nations.  Neither  before 
nor  immediately  after  the  Franco-German  war  were  the  condi- 
tions favourable  to  literature,  the  attention  of  the  nation  being 
engrossed  by  other  interests.  The  political  changes  reacted, 

History.  however,  favourably  on  the  science  of  history,  which,  since 
1848,  had  been  steadily  widening  its  circle  of  students  in 
Germany.  The  master  of  the  science,  Leopold  von  Ranke 
(1795-1886),  whose  most  famous  work,  Die  romischen  Pdpste, 
ihre  Kirche  und  ihr  Staat  im  16.  und  17.  Jahrhundert,  ap- 
peared as  far  back  as  1834-36,  was  still  alive,  and,  in  1881, 
began  the  publication  of  his  crowning  work,  a  Weltgeschichte, 
which  he  was  able  to  carry  on  as  far  as  the  ninth  volume 
( 1 88 1 -88).  Amongst  Ranke's  most  eminent  disciples  were 
G.  Waitz  (1813-8 6),  W.  Giesebrecht  (1814-89),  and  Heinrich 
von  Sybel  (1817-95) — SybeFs  Die  Begriindung  des  deutschen 
Reichs  durch  Wilhelm  I.  (1889-94)  is  one  of  the  prominent 
works  of  this  period — while  J.  G.  Droysen  (1808-84),  another 
of  the  older  historians,  had  more  in  common  with  Niebuhr 
than  with  Ranke.  The  monumental  Romische  Geschichte  by 
Theodor  Mommsen  (born  1817)  appeared,  it  has  also  to  be 
noted,  in  1854-56.  Above  all,  two  men  exerted  a  stimulating 
and  furthering  influence  on  the  younger  generation — Jakob 
Burckhardt  (1818-97),  a  native  of  Basle,  whose  Die  Kultur 
der  Renaissance  in  Italien  (1860)  is  one  of  the  masterpieces  of 
German  scholarship,  and  Heinrich  von  Treitschke  (1834-96). 
Treitschke's  Deutsche  Geschichte  im  neunzehnten  Jahrhundert 
(1879-94)  —  which,  however,  does  not  extend  beyond  the 
Revolution  of  1848  —  forms,  to  a  larger  extent  than  any 
other  single  work,  the  groundwork  for  the  intellectual  life  of 
Germany  subsequent  to  the  war  with  France. 

Criticism.  Literary  criticism  during  this  period  was  less  vigorous  and 
healthy  than  political  history.  In  1870,  it  is  true,  Hermann 
Hettner  (1821-82)  completed  his  Literaturgeschichte  des  acht- 
zehnten  Jahrkunderts,  already  mentioned,  and  Rudolf  Haym 
(1821-1901)  his  Romantische  Schule,  both  literary  histories  of 
the  first  order;  but,  unlike  France,  Germany  possessed  no 
criticism  whose  mission  it  was  to  lead  rather  than  be  led  by 


CHAP.  XIV.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  597 

the  literature  of  the  day.  The  only  eminent  German  critic 
in  this  sense  of  the  word  was  Karl  Hillebrand  (1829-84), 
who  lived  long  both  in  France  and  England,  and  whose 
collected  essays  appeared  in  seven  volumes  under  the  title 
Zeiten,  Volker  und  Menschen  (1874-85).  In  the  universities, 
philological  methods  of  literary  research  gradually  gave  way 
to  a  more  aesthetic  and  organic  study  of  literature — a  change 
to  some  extent  due  to  the  increased  attention  paid  to  Goethe. 
Works  like  Herman  Grimm's  (1828-1901)  lectures  on  Goethe 
(1876),  the  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Litteratur  (1883)  by  Wil- 
helm  Scherer  (1841-86),  and  Erich  Schmidt's  (born  1853) 
Lessing  (1884-92)  show  the  academic  study  of  literature  at 
its  best.  And  from  Scherer's  school — he  was  professor  in 
the  University  of  Berlin  from  1877  to  his  death — has  gone 
out  the  most  vital  movement  in  modern  German  criticism. 


598 


CHAPTER   XV. 

FROM    1870    TO    1890;    RICHARD    WAGNER. 

RECENT  literature  in  Germany,  in  so  far  as  it  rests  on  a 
national  basis  at  all,  has  been  inspired  by  the  unification  of 
the  German  people.  The  victorious  issue  of  the  war  with 
France  in  1870-71  left  virtually  no  impression  on  poetry; 
the  lyric,  for  instance,  that  was  called  forth  by  the  war — 
Geibel's  Heroldsrufe  (1872)  is  a  typical  example  —  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  the  patriotic  songs  of  1813.  Thus, 
until  a  new  generation  grew  up  as  citizens  of  the  German 
Empire — a  generation  alive  to  new  national  responsibilities — 
literature  remained  in  the  hands  of  older  writers  and  continued 
to  run  in  traditional  grooves.  In  1876,  however,  occurred 
what  must  be  regarded  as  the  first  national  achievement  of 
the  united  German  nation,  namely,  the  production  at  Bay- 
reuth  of  Wagner's  trilogy,  Der  Ring  des  Nibelungen.  To 
appreciate  the  significance  of  Wagner's  work  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  modern  German  drama,  we  must  trace  his  career 
at  some  length. 

R.  Wag-  Wilhelm  Richard  Wagner x  was  born  at   Leipzig  on   May 

ner,  1813-     2  2,   1813.     As  a  child,  he  showed  a  precocious  talent  for 

music   and   a   strong   love   for   the  theatre ;   his   own    early 

dramatic  attempts  were  accompanied  by  music.     He  devoted 

himself  zealously  to  the  study  of  this  art,  and,  while  musical 

director   in    Wiirzburg,    Magdeburg,    Konigsberg,    and   Riga, 

Rienxi,         wrote  the  operas  Die  Feen  (1833),  Das  Liebesverbot  (1834), 

1842.  '        and  Rienzi  (1842).     In  the  last  of  these,  which  is  based  on 

1  Gesammelte  Schriften  und  Dichtungen,  10  vols.,  and  ed.,  Leipzig,  1887-88. 
Cp.  C.  F.  Glasenapp,  Das  Leben  Richard  Wagners,  i,  2,  3rd  ed.,  Leipzig, 
1894-99 1  F.  Muncker,  Richard  Wagner,  eine  Skizze  seines  Lebens  und 
Wirkens,  sth  ed. ,  Bamberg,  1891 ;  and  H.  Lichtenberger,  fi.  Wagner,  poete 
et  penseur,  Paris,  1898. 


CHAP.  XV.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  599 

Bulwer  Lytton's  romance,  Wagner  directly  challenged  com- 
parison with  the  masters  of  historical  or  "grand"  opera, 
Spontini  and  Meyerbeer.  The  chief  hope  of  success  for  a 
dramatic  composer  at  this  time  was  to  win  the  approval  of 
Paris,  and  in  1839,  Wagner  gave  up  his  position  in  Riga 
and  made  virtually  the  same  voyage  that  Herder  had  made 
seventy  years  before.  In  Paris,  where  Wagner  arrived  in 
summer,  he  met  with  little  encouragement ;  he  was  obliged 
to  write  for  his  bread,  and,  amidst  poverty  and  privation,  he 
produced  the  essays  and  "  Novellen  "  collected  under  the  title 
Ein  deutscher  Musiker  in  Paris  (1840-41).  In  Paris,  too,  he 
composed  Der  fliegende  Hollander  (1843),  the  first  of  his  Derflie- 
dramas  which  was  at  variance  with  the  conventional  opera.  8i^de^°1' 

In  April,  1842,  Wagner  left  Paris,  and,  during  the  ensuing   1843. 
winter,   both  Rienzi  and  Der  fliegende  Hollander  were  per- 
formed at  Dresden  under  his  own  direction.     Meanwhile  he 
was  engaged  on  Tannhauser  und  der  Sdngerkrieg  auf  Wartburg   Tann- 
(1845)  and  Lohengrin  (1850),  works  in  which  he  gradually  l%£ls'r' 
freed  himself  from  the  traditional  form  of  opera.     In  Tann- 
hauser^ as  also  in  Der  fliegende  Hollander,  a  woman's  love 
is  invested  with  a  mystic  power  of  redemption  ;  in  all  three 
operas,  the  powers  of  light  are,  in  characteristically  Romantic 
fashion,  opposed  to  the  powers  of  darkness  or  evil.      Tann- 
hauser is  a  skilful  combination  of  two  sagas,  that  of  Ritter 
Tannhauser,  who  has  visited  the  subterranean  realms  of  the 
Venusberg,  and  that  of  the  famous  "  singing-contest "  between 
the  great  poets  of  Middle  High  German  literature  in  the  castle 
of  the  Wartburg.1     Lohengrin,  dramatically  more  complicated,   Lohengrin, 
also  contains  a  wider  range  of  scenes  and  characters.     The  l8s°' 
dark   figures  of  Ortrud  and  Friedrich  von  Telramund  stand 
in  the  shadow  of  heathendom ;    Lohengrin,   the  Knight  of 
the   Swan,    and   Elsa  von   Brabant,   whose   good    name   the 
knight  defends,  are  representatives  of  medieval  Christianity, 
while  reminiscences  from  the  saga  of  the  Nibelungen  give  the 
poem  an  air  of  archaic  solemnity. 

In  1849,  Wagner  was  implicated  in  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment at  Dresden,  and,  to  escape  prosecution,  was  obliged  to 
flee.  He  made  Switzerland  his  home  and  here  wrote  three 
treatises  which  contain  the  theoretical  principles  of  his  art,  Die  Theoretical 
Kunst  und  die  Revolution  (1849),  Das  Kunstwerk  der  Zukunft 
1  See  above,  pp.  158  f.  and  162  f. 


6oo 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Der  Ring 
des  Nibe- 
lungen, 
1853- 


Das  Rhein- 
gold. 


(1850),  and  Oper  und  Drama  (1851).  In  these  prose 
writings,  Wagner  expressed  clearly  and  definitely  what  the 
theorists  of  the  preceding  generation  had  blindly  groped 
after.  Since  Herder's  time,  the  regeneration  of  the  "music- 
drama" — which,  under  Italian  influence,  had  lost  its  claim 
to  be  regarded  as  a  form  of  literary  art  —  had  been  dis- 
cussed by  German  writers  on  aesthetics,  and  several  of  them 
had  speculated  on  the  possibility  of  reviving  a  form  of  art 
similar  to  the  tragedy  of  the  Greeks.  The  foundation  on 
which  Wagner  based  his  theories  was  not  new ;  he  only  insisted 
that  now,  as  in  ancient  Greece,  music  should  be  an  aid  to  the 
interpretation  of  the  drama,  and  not,  as  in  the  Italian  opera,  an 
end  in  itself;  the  national  German  drama,  he  claimed,  must, 
like  that  of  the  Greeks,  be  a  composite  art,  in  which  poetry 
and  music,  acting  and  decorative  art,  all  lent  their  assistance 
to  the  representation  of  a  dramatic  action  of  national  interest. 

To  the  year  of  the  Revolution,  1848,  and  to  the  years 
succeeding,  belong  the  sketches  of  four  dramas,  Friedrich  der 
Rothbart,  Siegfrieds  Tod,  Jesus  von  Nazareth,  and  Wieland 
der  Schmiedt ;  but,  with  the  exception  of  Siegfrieds  Tod,  these 
plans  were  not  carried  out.  Soon,  however,  the  myth  of  the 
Nibelungen,  which  Wagner  had  mastered  thoroughly  before 
writing  his  drama  on  Siegfried,  wholly  engrossed  his  attention, 
and  in  1853,  the  trilogy,  Der  Ring  des  Nibelungen,  was  com- 
pleted. Der  Ring  des  Nibelungen  is  an  essentially  modern 
drama,  reflecting  the  spirit  and  aspirations  of  its  epoch ;  it  is 
the  poetic  expression  of  a  philosophy  closely  allied  to  Schopen- 
hauer's, of  which,  however,  Wagner  knew  nothing  till  1854. 
With  a  finer  dramatic  instinct  than  Hebbel,  who,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  dramatised  the  Middle  High  German  epic  in 
his  Nibelungen,  Wagner  saw  that  for  the  modern  poet,  the 
possibilities  of  the  subject  lay,  not  in  the  German  Nibe- 
lungenlied,  a  poem  of  a  definite  historical  epoch,  but  in  the 
primitive  saga  as  preserved  in  the  Edda.  And,  as  in  Tann- 
hduser  he  had  successfully  combined  two  originally  uncon- 
nected sagas,  so  here  he  united  the  Scandinavian  Volsungasaga 
to  that  of  the  Rhinelander  Siegfried,  and  gave  the  whole  a 
mythological  background. 

The  trilogy  is  preceded  by  a  "  Vorabend,"  Das  Rheingold, 
which  tells  how  Alberich  the  Nibelung  obtains  possession  of 
the  treasure  that  lies  sunk  in  the  Rhine,  the  gold  which 


CHAP.  XV.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  6OI 

makes  its  owner  master  of  the  world.     But,  as  the  Rhine 
daughters  sing — 

"  Nur  wer  der  Minne 

Macht  versagt, 

nur  wer  der  Liebe 

Lust  verjagt, 

nur  der  erzielt  sich  den  Zauber, 
zum  Reif  zu  zwingen  das  Gold. "  1 

Alberich  welds  the  all-powerful  ring.  Meanwhile,  the  giants, 
having  built  Walhalla,  demand  from  the  gods  the  promised 
reward — the  goddess  Freia.  In  her  place,  they  are  persuaded 
to  accept  the  Nibelungenhort,  which  Wotan,  with  the  help 
of  Loge's  cunning,  wrests  from  Alberich;  and,  on  every 
one  who  obtains  possession  of  the  ring,  the  latter  pronounces 
the  curse  of  death.  The  first  drama  of  the  trilogy,  Die  Die  Wai- 
Walkiire,  is  based  on  the  Volsungasaga.  Siegmund  the  e' 
Volsung,  having  succeeded  in  drawing  from  the  ash -tree  in 
Hunding's  house  the  sword  which  Wotan  had  once  plunged 
into  it,  is  seized  with  a  passionate  love  for  Hunding's  wife, 
Sieglinde,  who  is,  at  the  same  time,  his  own  sister.  The  death 
of  Siegmund  at  Hunding's  hands,  which  Wotan  may  not  avert, 
his  daughter,  the  Walkiire,  Briinnhilde,  tries  in  vain  to  prevent, 
and  her  father  punishes  her  for  her  intervention  by  putting  her 
to  sleep  on  a  mountain  summit,  surrounded  by  a  ring  of  fire. 
In  the  second  drama,  Siegfried,  the  young  hero,  the  son  of  Siegfried. 
Siegmund  and  Sieglinde,  and  brought  up  by  the  dwarf  Mime, 
kills  Fafner,  the  dragon,  and  wins  the  hoard  and  ring.  Guided 
by  a  bird,  he  comes  to  the  mountain  where  Briinnhilde  lies 
sleeping,  fights  his  way  through  the  flames  and  awakens  her. 
Gotterdammerung)  which  is  based  on  the  drama  Siegfrieds  Gotterddm- 
Tod,  written  by  Wagner  in  1848,  is  the  fullest  and  most  merun& 
varied  drama  of  the  trilogy;  the  destinies  of  generations,  of 
the  gods  themselves,  are  involved  in  the  tragedy  of  Siegfried 
and  Briinnhilde.  Leaving  the  fire-girt  mountain,  Siegfried 
arrives  at  the  castle  of  Gunther  on  the  Rhine;  the  wily 
Nibelung,  Hagen,  who  wishes  to  see  Gunther  wed  to  Briinn- 
hilde, suggests  that  Siegfried's  memory  be  destroyed  by  a 
potion.  Siegfried,  disguised  in  the  Tarnhelm,  once  more 
braves  the  fire  and,  as  in  the  German  Nibelungenlied,  wins 
Briinnhilde  for  Gunther.  He  himself  marries  Gunther's 

1  Schriften  und  Dichtungen,  5,  211. 


602 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


The  Bay- 
reuth 
Festspiele, 
1876. 

Tristan 


sister,  Gudrun,  who  thus  plays  the  part  of  Kriemhild  in  the 
epic.  The  murder  of  Siegfried  by  Hagen  at  Briinnhilde's 
instigation  takes  place  in  the  third  act  of  the  tragedy ;  the 
body  is  brought  home  and  laid  out  upon  the  funeral  pyre,  and 
Briinnhilde  throws  herself  into  the  flames.  Thus  comes  to 
an  end  the  race  of  the  Volsungs,  which  Wotan  had  originally 
created  to  save  the  world  from  the  power  of  the  self-seeking 
Nibelungs.  But  by  Siegfried's  death  and  by  Briinnhilde's 
love  for  him,  the  might  and  the  curse  of  the  ring  are  alike 
destroyed ;  the  end  of  the  gods,  which  Wotan  has  foreseen, 
approaches,  and,  in  her  last  words,  Briinnhilde  greets  the  dawn 
of  a  new  age : — 

"  Verging  wie  Hauch 

der  Gotter  Geschlecht, 

lass'  ohne  Walter 

die  Welt  ich  zuruck  : 
meines  heiligsten  Wissens  Hort 
weis'  ich  der  Welt  nun  zu. — 

Nicht  Gut,  nicht  Gold, 

noch  gottliche  Pracht ; 

nicht  Haus,  nicht  Hof, 

noch  herrischer  Prunk ; 

nicht  triiber  Vertrage 

trugender  Bund, 

noch  heuchelnder  Sitte 

hartes  Gesetz : 
selig  in  Lust  und  Leid 
lasst — die  Liebe  nur  sein." 1 

The  musical  composition  of  Der  Ring  des  Nibelungen,  which 
was  printed  in  1853,  but  not  published  until  1863,  occupied 
Wagner  with  interruptions  from  1853  to  1870.  Das Rheingold 
and  Die  Walkiire  were  performed  at  Munich,  in  1869  and 
1870,  but  the  first  representation  of  the  trilogy  as  a  whole 
took  place  in  the  summer  of  1876,  in  the  "  Festspielhaus  "  at 
Bayreuth,  which  Wagner  had  erected  under  almost  insuperable 
difficulties.  Long  before  this,  however,  he  had  produced 
two  other  master  -  works,  the  tragedy  of  Tristan  und  Isolde 
(1865),  which,  like  Der  Ring  des  Nibelungen,  is  mainly 
written  in  alliterative  verse-forms,  and  the  comedy  of  Die 
Meistersinger  von  Niirnberg  (1868).  Tristan  und  Isolde, 
from  a  poetic  standpoint  Wagner's  finest  drama,  was  a 
result  of  his  enthusiastic  study  of  Schopenhauer's  writings; 
it  is  the  poetic  expression  of  that  thinker's  philosophy. 

1  Schriften  und  Dichtungen,  6,  254  f. 


CHAP.  XV.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY  603 

Here,  with  a  masterly  hand,  Wagner  has  made  a  drama 
out  of  the  loose  narrative  of  Gottfried's  epic,  substituting 
dramatic  conciseness  for  epic  breadth.  The  first  act  passes 
on  Tristan's  ship  on  the  voyage  from  Ireland  to  Cornwall, 
and  Brangane  substitutes  the  love  potion  for  the  poison 
which  Isolde  orders  her  to  put  into  the  wine.  Nothing  is 
left,  as  in  the  epic,  to  chance,  and,  while  according  to 
Gottfried,  the  potion  is  the  cause  of  all  the  evil,  in  Wagner's 
tragedy  it  is  but  symbolic  of  the  love  which  already  has 
both  Tristan  and  Isolde  in  its  grasp.  Alone  in  the  garden, 
the  lovers  realise  that  the  only  solution  to  their  all-devouring 
passion  is  the  perfect  union  of  death.  They  are  discovered 
by  King  Marke,  and  in  the  third  act,  Tristan  dies  in  the  presence 
of  Isolde,  who  has  crossed  the  sea  to  bring  him  healing. 

For  his  drama  Die  Meistersinger  von  Nilrnberg,  Wagner  Die  Mei- 
borrowed  some  suggestions  from  Hans  Sac/is  (1829),  a  stersinser 
comedy  by  an  Austrian  playwright  J.  L.  Deinhardstein  (1794-  Numberg, 
1859),  which  had  already  been  utilised  for  an  opera  by  Albert  l868- 
Lortzing.  But  the  idea  round  which  Wagner's  plot  turns, 
that  of  a  young  knight  gaining  admittance  to  the  guild 
of  Meistersingers,  and  winning  the  daughter  of  a  burgher 
for  his  wife,  is  exclusively  his  own.  The  figure  of  Hans 
Sachs  himself — in  Deinhardstein's  drama  Hans  Sachs  was  a 
young  man — is  Wagner's  most  genial  character,  and  one  of 
the  finest  figures  in  German  comedy.  At  the  same  time, 
Die  Meistersinger  is  essentially  a  subjective  work ;  for,  in 
writing  it,  the  poet  had  obviously  his  own  artistic  ideals  and 
trials  in  view :  Sixtus  Beckmesser,  the  malicious  "  Stadt- 
schreiber  "  of  Niirnberg,  is  a  satirical  caricature  of  the  critics 
and  pedants  against  whom,  all  his  life  long,  Wagner  was 
obliged  to  fight.  Die  Meistersinger  was  Wagner's  enthusiastic 
tribute  to  German  national  art ;  the  Romantic  doctrine,  "  dass 
die  Kunst  mit  dem  Volke  gehen  muss,"  here  appears  in  a  new 
form ;  the  "  deutschen  Meister,"  the  burghers  who  represent 
the  genius  of  the  Volk,  form  the  true  bulwark  of  German  art. 

"  Zerfallt  erst  deutsches  Volk  und  Reich, 
in  falscher  walscher  Majestat 
kein  Fiirst  bald  mehr  sein  Volk  versteht ; 
und  walschen  Dunst  mit  walschem  Tand 
sie  pflanzen  uns  in's  deutsche  Land. 
Was  deutsch  und  acht  wiisst'  Keiner  mehr, 
lebt's  nicht  in  deutscher  Meister  Ehr'. 


604  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

\ 

Drum  sag*  ich  euch 
ehrt  cure  deutschen  Meister, 
dunn  bannt  ihr  gute  Geister  ! 
Und  gebt  ihr  ihrem  Wirken  Gunst, 

zerging'  in  Dunst 
das  heil'ge  rom'sche  Reich, 

uns  bliebe  gleich 
die  heil'ge  deutsche  Kunst ! " 1 

Parsifal,          Wagner  wrote  one  other  drama,  Parsifal  (1882),  in  which, 
1882.  wjtk  consummate  constructive  power,  he  blended  the  saga, 

as  he  found  it  in  Wolfram's  poem,  with  motives  from  the 
Alexanderlied — the  "flower  maidens"  who  tempt  Parsifal — 
and  from  the  later  Arthurian  epic.  Out  of  these  traditional 
materials  he  created  a  poem  which,  in  its  calm  beauty  and  re- 
ligious earnestness,  is  not  inferior  to  the  best  parts  of  Tristan 
or  Die  Meister  singer.  Parsifal  represents  the  last  stage  of 
that  spiritual  evolution  in  Wagner's  thought,  which  had  begun 
with  Tannhduser.  He  was  still  a  pessimist,  but,  like  his 
master  Schopenhauer,  he  went  back  to  the  fatalism  of  the 
East  and  the  oriental  Nirvana ;  the  spirit  of  Parsifal  is  a 
transfigured  pessimism.  But  the  age  was  rapidly  advancing ; 
the  German  nation  was  rising  full  of  renewed  energy,  and  the 
religious  mysticism  of  Parsifal  did  not  awaken  the  same 
enthusiasm  among  the  younger  generation,  as  the  Nibelungen 
Ring  and  Tristan  had  done  some  years  previously.  In  less 
than  a  year  after  the  production  of  Parsifal  at  Bayreuth,  on 
February  13,  1883,  Wagner  died  in  Venice. 

Wagner  has  so  completely  overshadowed  the  music  drama 
that  even  still  the  latter  lies  under  his  ban.     The  German 
theatre,   on    the   other   hand,    benefited   enormously  by  the 
example  of  Bayreuth,  and,  about  the  same  time,  the  Court 
The  Theatre  of  Meiningen  began  to  employ  in  the  spoken  drama 

inger!""  those  artistic  principles  which  guided  Wagner's  reforms, 
namely,  attention  to  detail,  the  repression  of  the  individual 
actor,  the  subordination  of  parts  to  the  whole — above  all, 
it  aimed  at  unity  of  style.  Thus,  not  from  Berlin  or 
Munich,  but  from  the  little  towns  of  Bayreuth  and  Meinin- 
gen, spread  the  reforms  which,  within  a  few  years,  advanced 
the  German  theatre  to  the  leading  position  in  Europe  as 
an  artistic  institution.  The  "  Meininger "  had  been  mainly 
dependent  upon  the  classical  drama  for  their  materials,  but 

1  Scftriften,  7,  270  f. 


CHAP.  XV.]          THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  605 

they  also  brought  into  notice  such  dramatists  as  Albert  Minor 
Lindner  (1831-88),  author  of  Brutus  und  Collatinus  (1866)  dr*matists. 
and  Die  Bluthochzeit  (1871),  and  Arthur  Fitger  (born  1840)  : 
Die  Hexe  (1875),  by  the  latter,  is  a  powerful  tragedy  of 
religious  doubt,  but  marred  by  too  pronounced  a  "Ten- 
denz."  In  addition  to  these  writers,  the  chief  dramatists 
of  this  period  were  Heinrich  Kruse  (1815-1902),  who, 
however,  had  but  little  talent  for  the  stage,  Adolf  Wilbrandt 
(born  1837),  and  Paul  Lindau  (born  1839)  —  Lindau's 
once  popular  social  plays  (Ein  Erfolg,  1874;  Grafin  Lea, 
1879)  are  imitations  of  French  models,  and  have  small 
literary  value.  The  favourite  pieces  of  the  day  were  written 
by  playwrights  like  G.  von  Moser  (born  1829),  A.  L'Arronge 
(born  1838),  F.  von  Schonthan  (born  1849),  and  O.  Blumen- 
thal  (born  1852),  who  remained  faithful  to  the  well-worn 
traditions  of  Benedix.  The  "  Meininger,"  however,  helped 
to  make  known  a  writer  whose  work  was  a  factor  of  some 
importance  in  the  later  dramatic  movement,  namely,  Ernst 
von  Wildenbruch  (born  in  1845).  Wildenbruch,  who  first  E.  von 
attracted  notice  by  epics  on  the  Franco-German  war,  has  b^,1^11" 
also  written  several  volumes  of  Novellen,  but  his  talent  is  born  1845. 
essentially  dramatic,  and  he  is  the  author  of  a  long  series 
of  plays,  mostly  on  historical  themes.  Die  Karolinger 
(1881)  and  Das  neue  Gebot  (1886)  brought  the  historical 
drama  again  into  honour ;  while  Die  Quitzows  (1888)  met  with 
a  success  which  was  unequalled  by  any  of  Wildenbruch's  later 
dramas  from  Prussian  history,  such  as  Der  Generalfeldoberst 
(1889)  or  Der  neue  Herr  (1891).  With  a  double  tragedy, 
Heinrich  und  Heinrichs  Geschlecht  (the  Emperor  Heinrich  IV., 
1896),  and  a  drama  of  Reformation  times,  Die  Tochter  des 
Erasmus  (1900),  he  has  again  awakened  the  enthusiasm 
which  his  earlier  plays  called  forth.  But  the  good  qualities 
of  his  work  lie  on  the  surface ;  while  effective  on  the  stage 
and  noisily  patriotic,  it  is  deficient  in  the  attributes  of  true 
dramatic  poetry.1 

Previous  to  1889,  the  North  German  drama  gave  little  or 
no  signs  of  vitality.  In  the  meantime,  however,  in  Austria, 
where  the  succession  of  dramatic  poets  has  always  been  less 
broken  than  in  Germany,  a  dramatist  had  arisen  who,  besides 
a  knowledge  of  the  stage,  had  an  unmistakably  poetic  talent. 

1  Cp.  H.  Bulthaupt,  Dramaturgic  des  Schauspiels,  4,  Leipzig,  1901,  205  ff. 


606  THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

L.  Anzen-  Ludwig  Anzengruber  (i  839-89), x  a  native  of  Vienna,  is  the 
goube£  most  gifted  German  dramatist  who  has  written  his  chief  works 
in  dialect,  and  no  writer  since  Fritz  Reuter  has  given  such 
faithful  pictures  of  peasant  life.  In  Anzengruber's  novels, 
as  well  as  in  his  plays,  may  be  observed  what  was  virtually  a 
new  attitude  towards  the  province :  the  peasant  is  no  longer 
idealised,  as  in  the  village  stories  of  the  first  half  of  the 
century,  but  is  described  as  he  actually  is.  Anzengruber 
was  thus,  in  some  respects,  a  pioneer  of  the  realistic  move- 
ment which,  a  decade  later,  set  in  in  German  literature. 
After  years  of  extreme  privation,  as  a  strolling  actor  in  the 
Austrian  provinces,  he  wrote  Der  Pfarrer  von  Kirchfeld 
(1870),  which  at  last  brought  him  into  notice.  The  popularity 
of  this  drama — it  is  still  frequently  played — was,  however,  due 
rather  to  the  interest  in  questions  of  religious  doubts  and  toler- 
ance, which  the  repeal  of  the  "  Concordat "  in  Austria  and  the 
"  Kulturkampf "  in  Germany  had  awakened,  than  to  inherent 
poetic  qualities.  But  Anzengruber's  next  work,  Der  Meineid- 
bauer(\^i\\  both  in  plot  and  character-drawing  a  masterpiece, 
made  it  clear  that  his  peculiar  forte  lay  in  the  depiction  of 
peasant-life,  and  this  play  was  followed  by  Die  Kreuzelschreiber 
(1872),  Der  Gwissenswurm  (1874),  Doppelselbstmord  (1876), 
and  Das  Jungferngift  (1878).  These  powerful  and  absorbing 
dramas  have  not  yet  been  appreciated  as  they  deserve  to  be, 
and  the  fact  that  they  are,  for  the  most  part,  written  in  an 
Austrian  dialect  has  excluded  them  from  North  German 
theatres;  only  Das  vierte  Gebot  (1878),  indeed,  an  impressive 
tragedy  of  Viennese  life,  can  be  said  to  be  really  popular 
outside  Austria.  In  addition  to  this,  Anzengruber's  realism 
was  tempered  by  few  concessions  to  popular  taste ;  unless 
to  some  extent  in  Der  Pfarrer  von  Kirchfeld,  he  never  merely 
transferred,  as  his  predecessors  had  done,  a  modern  social 
drama  to  a  milieu  in  which  dialect  is  spoken.  Whatever  his 
peasants  are,  they  are,  at  least,  genuine  types :  they  neither 
philosophise  like  the  favourite  heroes  of  the  older  "  Dorf- 
geschichte,"  nor  do  they  express  literary  ideas.  Anzengruber 
is,  above  all,  consistent;  his  plays  and  stories  often  seem 
trivial,  na'ive,  even  sentimental ;  but  these  characteristics  are 

1  Gesammelte  Werke,  10  vols.,  3rd  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1898.  Cp.  A.  Bettelheim, 
Ludwig  Anzengruber,  and  ed.,  Dresden,  1898,  and  S.  Friedmann,  L.  Anzen- 
gruber,  Leipzig,  1902. 


CHAP.  XV.]         THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  607 

part  of  the  life  he  reproduces.     The  excellence  of  his  art  lies 

in  his  realism,  in  his  power  of  endowing  the  life  of  the  peasant 

with  a  tragic  destiny,  of  raising  petty  joys  and  sorrows  to  the 

realm  of  high  comedy  or  tragedy.     Anzengruber  is  the  most 

striking  dramatic  talent  that  modern  Austria  has  produced, 

and  the  continued  vitality  of  the  Austrian  theatre  is  due  to 

him  and  not  to  poets  like  Franz  Nissel  (1831-93),  who  were  F.  Nissel, 

content  to  imitate  Grillparzer.    Nissel,  whose  masterly  tragedy,   l83I-93- 

Agnes  von  Me  fan,  won  the  Schiller  Prize  in  1878,  spent  an 

even  more  unhappy  life  than  Anzengruber ;  his  work  brought 

with  it  no  inward  satisfaction  to  compensate  for  the  want  of 

popular  success. 

Between  1870  and  1885,  the  short  story,  or  "  Novelle,"  The  short 
was  the  most  healthy  form  of  German  literature ;  it  showed  story> 
much  more  promise  than  the  novel,  which  still  remained  in 
the  hands  of  writers  whose  reputations  had  been  made 
previous  to  the  war.  The  master  of  the  German  Novelle 
in  this  age,  as  in  the  preceding  one,  was  a  Swiss.  Conrad 
Ferdinand  Meyer  (1825-98) x  was  a  native  of  Zurich,  and  c.  F. 
turned  to  literature  comparatively  late  in  life;  before  1870, 
he  had  published  only  one  small  volume  of  Gedichte  (1864). 
Meyer  was  long  uncertain  whether  to  write  in  French  or 
German,  but,  his  sympathies  being  with  Germany,  he  ulti- 
mately decided  for  the  latter  tongue.  In  1871,  he  wrote  a 
fine  epic,  Huttens  letzte  Tage,  and,  in  1872,  followed  it  up 
by  Engelberg,  a  poetic  idyll.  The  first  of  his  novels,  Jurg 
Jenatsch  (1876),  the  hero  of  which  played  an  important  role 
in  Graubiinden  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  is  a  master- 
piece of  historical  fiction;  and  Der  Heilige  (1880),  a  novel 
on  Thomas  a  Becket,  is  not  inferior  to  it  The  range 
of  historical  subjects  congenial  to  Meyer's  taste  was,  how- 
ever, restricted ;  he  was  only  at  his  ease  when  describing 
an  age  of  great  personalities  like  that  of  the  Renaissance. 
His  aristocratic  mind  was  in  close  sympathy  with  the  com- 
manding geniuses  of  such  an  epoch,  and  his  own  nature 
responded  to  the  polish  and  scholarly  wit  of  the  humanists. 
The  same  perfect  workmanship  characterises  all  the  novels  that 
followed  Der  Heilige,  namely,  Das  Amulet,  Der  Schuss  von  der 
Kanzel,  Plautus  im  Nonnenkloster,  Gustav  Adolfs  Page  (all 
published  together  in  1883),  Das  Leiden  eines  Knaben  (1883), 

1  Cp.  A.  Frey,  C.  F.  Mfyer,  Stuttgart,  1900. 


6o8 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


F.  von 
Saar,  born 
1833- 


M.  von 
Ebner- 
Eschcn- 
bach,  born 
1830. 


Die  Hochzeit  des  Monchs  (1884),  Die  Richterin  (1885),  Die 
Versuchung  des  Pescara  (1887),  and  Angela  Borgia  (1890). 
Meyer  is  pre-eminently  the  artist  among  modern  German 
novelists ;  his  style  is  polished  and  finely  balanced ;  his  scenes 
are  delineated  with  infinite  care,  and  his  subjects  always  have 
a  certain  inner  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  author's  own 
time.  Of  the  essentially  "  naive  "  genius  of  his  countryman, 
Keller,  he  had  nothing,  nor  had  he  the  latter's  purely  German 
humour ;  the  qualities  in  which  he  excels  are,  as  in  the  case 
of  Heyse,  those  peculiar  to  Romance  literatures — beauty  of 
style  and  form.  Like  Keller  and  Heyse,  Meyer  was  also  a 
lyric  poet,  but,  as  may  be  inferred  from  his  prose,  he  turned 
with  preference  to  the  ballad ;  his  verse  is  dramatic  rather 
than  lyric ;  the  inner  warmth  and  the  power  of  giving  himself 
up  to  moods  and  feelings  are  denied  him. 

While  Meyer  is  not,  and  never  will  be,  a  popular  novelist, 
like  Storm  or  Keller,  his  contemporary,  Ferdinand  von  Saar,1 
who  was  born  at  Vienna  in  1833,  has  a  still  smaller  circle 
of  admirers.  Saar  has  written  poetic  tragedies — Heinrich  IV. 
(two  parts,  1865-67) — but  without  success;  he  was  not  a 
dramatist  who  could  adapt  himself  to  the  requirements  of  the 
stage.  As  a  lyric  poet,  Saar  is  one  of  the  most  delicately 
organised  of  living  German  writers ;  a  singer,  whose  favourite 
note  is  renunciation,  no  one  expresses  better  than  he  the  re- 
signed mood  of  modern  Austria  (  Wiener  Elegien,  1893).  As 
a  novelist,  his  art  is,  even  in  comparison  with  Meyer's,  narrow, 
his  best  work  being  contained  in  two  small  volumes  of  Novellen 
aus  Osterreich  (1877-97).  While  Meyer  rejoiced  in  strong, 
optimistic  characters,  Saar  chooses  to  write  of  those  who  have 
been  worsted  in  life ;  and  the  shadowy  figures  of  his  stories 
are  invariably  set  in  a  sombre  framework. 

A  more  widely  known  writer  of  short  stories  in  Austria  is 
Marie  von  Ebner-Eschenbach  (born  i83o),2  who,  like  Saar, 
also  began  her  career  with  ambitious  dramas.  These,  however, 
attracted  little  attention,  and  it  was  1875,  before  a  story,  Ein 
Spdtgeborener^  revealed  the  marked  originality  of  Frau  Ebner's 
talent.  This  book  was  followed,  in  1876,  by  JBozena,  a  novel 
of  some  length,  to  which  the  Moravian  scenery  gave  a  special 
interest.  A  collection  of  Erzdhlunge n,  published  in  1875,  was 

1  Cp.  J.  Minor,  Ferdinand  von  Saar,  Vienna,  1898. 

2  Gesammelte  Werke  (6  vols.  have  appeared),  Berlin,  1893  ff. 


CHAP.  XV.]          THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  609 

succeeded  by  a  second  in  1881  ;  two  volumes  of  Dorf-  und 
Schlossgeschichten  appeared  in  1883  and  1886,  and  since  then 
Frau  von  Ebner-Eschenbach  has  written  many  books,  includ- 
ing longer  novels,  such  as  Das  Gemeindekind  (1887)  and 
Unsiihnbar  (1890).  Although  not  without  understanding  for 
recent  tendencies  in  literature,  she  is  more  deeply  indebted  to 
her  predecessors  than  to  her  contemporaries ;  she  has  learned 
from  Heyse  and  even  from  Auerbach.  Her  talents  are  seen  to 
best  advantage  in  her  witty  and  satirical  sketches  of  Austrian 
aristocratic  life,  as,  for  example,  in  Zwei  Comtessen  (1885)  and 
Die  Freiherren  von  Gemperlein  (1881).  All  her  writings  are 
characterised  by  an  essentially  Austrian  lightness  of  touch, 
and  that  ability  to  express  ideas  epigrammatically,  which 
lends  piquancy  to  her  collection  of  Aphorismen  (1880). 

The  novel  of  provincial  life  was,  at  this  period,  cultivated  Minor 
to  a  larger  extent  in  Austria  than  in  Germany.  Despite  a  Austr.lan 
preference  for  morbid  psychological  problems,  Leopold  von 
Sacher-Masoch  (1835-95)  wrote  some  powerful  Galizische 
Geschichten  (1876-81)  and  Judengeschichten  (1878-81),  and 
K.  E.  Franzos  (born  1848)  described  a  similar  life  in  Aus 
Halbasien  (1876)  and  Die  Juden  von  Barnow  (1877).  Peter 
Rosegger,  who  was  born  in  1843,  as  the  son  of  a  Styrian 
peasant,  is  a  disciple  of  Anzengruber.  But  without  either 
his  master's  genius,  or  that  discipline  which  disheartening 
failure  brought  to  bear  on  Anzengruber's  work,  Rosegger  has 
become  a  voluminous  writer,  whose  natural  talent  has  lost 
itself  in  didactic  sentimentality.  Among  his  most  noteworthy 
books  are  Die  Schriften  des  Waldschulmeisters  (1875)  and 
Das  ewige  Licht  (1897). 

The  pioneer  of  the  modern  German   novel  was  a  North 
German,  Theodor  Fontane  (iSig-gS),1  who  has  already  been   T.  Fon- 
mentioned  as  a  follower  of  Willibald  Alexis.     A   native   of  t£Lne>  I8l9" 

9". 

Neuruppin,  Fontane  identified  himself  with  the  Mark  of 
Brandenburg,  in  the  same  way  as  Storm  and  Reuter  identified 
themselves  with  Schleswig  and  Mecklenburg.  Between  his 
historical  romances,  Vor  dem  Sturm  (1878)  and  Schach  von 
Wuthenow  (1883),  Fontane  wrote  a  number  of  Novellen 
(Grete  Minde,  1880;  L'Adultera,  1882),  in  which  he  gradu- 
ally felt  his  way  towards  a  realistic  form  of  fiction.  In  1887, 
Irrungen,  Wirrungen,  appeared  and  had  an  immediate  and 

1  Gesammelte  Romane  und  Novellen,  12  vols.,  Berlin,  1890-91. 
2  Q 


610  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

marked  influence  on  the  methods  of  the  German  novel :  for 
this  work  and  Stine  (1890),  Fontane's  models  were  Flaubert, 
the  Goncourts,   and    Zola.      Two    stories,   Unwiederbringlich 
(1891)    and    JFrau  Jenny    Treibel    (1892),    which    followed 
Irrungen,  Wtrrungen,  did  not  mark  much  advance ;    but  in 
Effl.  Briest,    1895,  Fontane  published  his  masterpiece,  Effi  Briest.     The 
l895-  poet  who,  in  his  old  age,  had  learned  a  new  style  from  the 

French  realists,  here  employed  it  in  describing  the  milieu  of 
his  North  German  home ;  the  figures  of  his  story,  apart  from 
their  surroundings,  are  often  shadowy  and  indistinct,  and  the 
plot  is  meagre,  but  the  fine  poetic  spirit  in  which  the  whole  is 
conceived,  gives  the  novel  a  unique  position  in  the  fiction  of 
the  time.  After  Effi  Briest  appeared  Die  Poggenpuhls  (1896) 
and  Der  Stechlin  (1898),  in  which  the  charm  of  the  author's 
style  atones  for  the  almost  complete  absence  of  incident. 
Fontane's  personality — as  reflected  in  the  volumes  of  auto- 
biography, Meine  Kinderjahre  (1893)  and  Von  Zwanzig  bis 
Dreissig  (1898) — is  the  most  interesting  in  recent  German 
literature :  he  may  be  regarded  as  the  typical  example  of  the 
Berlin  man  of  letters  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  century. 


6n 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE    END    OF    THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

THE  literary  movement  of  which  the  work  of  the  Munich 
school  was  a  characteristic  expression,  culminated,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  the  opening  of  the  "  Festspielhaus "  at  Bayreuth, 
and  the  general  acceptance  of  the  Wagnerian  drama.  The 
passive  resignation  which  inspired  this  literature  was  not, 
however,  to  the  taste  of  the  younger  generation  of  writers, 
who  had  grown  up  in  an  era  of  national  optimism ;  they 
demanded  a  more  positive,  self-assertive  faith  than  was  to 
be  learned  from  Schopenhauer.  The  conflict  against  the 
collective  spirit  of  Hegelianism,  which  had  virtually  been 
begun,  before  the  middle  of  the  century,  by  the  Danish  in- 
dividualist, Soren  Kierkegaard,  and  carried  over  into  social 
fields,  as  early  as  1845,  by  Max  Stirner  (pseudonym  for 
Kaspar  Schmidt,  1806-56),  in  his  remarkable  work,  Der 
Einzige  und  sein  Eigenthum?-  came  into  the  foreground  of 
German  intellectual  life  as  the  influence  of  Schopenhauer 
waned.  This  optimistic  and  individualistic  reaction  is  first 
definitely  and  clearly  set  forth  in  the  work  of  Friedrich 
Nietzsche,  the  most  original  thinker  in  the  last  period 2  of 
German  intellectual  evolution. 

Friedrich  Wilhelm   Nietzsche3  was  born  at  Rocken   near  F.  W. 
Liitzen,  on  October  15,  1844,  and  educated  at  Schulpforta. 

1  Reprinted  in  Reclam's  Universal-Bibliothek,  No.  3057-60,  Leipzig,  1893; 

2  For  this  period,  cp.,  besides  R.  M.  Meyer,  Die  deutsche  Litteratur  des 
neunzehnten  Jahrhunderts,  and  ed.,   Berlin,  1900;    A.  Bartels,   Die  deutsche 
Dichtung  der  Gegenwart,  and  ed.,  Leipzig,  1901 ;  and  A.  von  Hanstein,  Das 
jiingste  Deutschland,  and  ed.,  Leipzig,  1901. 

3  Werke,  8  vols.,  Leipzig,  1899  ;  three  volumes  of  Nachgelassene  Werke  have 
also  appeared  in  this  edition,  Leipzig,  1901.     Cp.  E.  Forster-Nietzsche,  Das 
Le.ben  Nietzsches,  i,  2,  Leipzig,  1895-97;  H.  Lichtenberger,  La  philosophie  de 
Nietzsche,  Paris,  1898  (German  translation,  with  an  introduction  by  E.  Forster- 
Nietzsche,  Dresden,  1899),  and  T.  Ziegler,  Friedrich  Nietzsche,  Berlin,  1900. 


612 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Die  Geburt 
der  Tra- 
godie,  1872. 


Unteit- 

getndssf 

Hetrach- 

titngen, 

1873-76. 


Nietzsche 
and  Wag- 
ner. 


At  the  universities  of  Bonn  and  Leipzig  he  studied  classics, 
and  so  distinguished  himself  that  he  was  appointed  Professor 
of  Classical  Philology  at  Basle  in  1869,  before  he  had  taken  a 
degree.  In  1879,  illness,  combined  with  mental  overstrain, 
obliged  him  to  resign  his  chair,  and  for  the  next  ten  years  he 
led  an  unsettled  life  at  Swiss  health  resorts  and  in  Italy ;  in 
1889,  his  mind  gave  way,  and  he  died  at  Weimar,  on  August 
25,  1900.  Like  every  pioneer  of  a  new  period  in  thought 
or  art,  Nietzsche  himself  passed  through  the  transition  which 
lay  between  him  and  his  predecessors  :  he  began  his  career  as 
a  disciple  of  Schopenhauer  and  a  warm  friend  and  admirer  of 
Richard  Wagner.  His  first  work,  Die  Geburt  der  Tragodie 
aus  dem  Geiste  der  Musik  (1872),  was  not  merely  a  revolt 
against  uninspired  and  uninspiring  philological  methods  and 
an  attempt  to  solve,  by  philosophic  intuition,  the  problem 
of  dramatic  origins ;  it  was,  at  the  same  time,  'an  apology 
for  Wagner's  art.  In  the  four  Unzeitgemassen  Betrachtungen 
which  followed  (1873-76),  Nietzsche  appears  as  the  declared 
antagonist  of  his  time;  he  attacks  the  self-satisfied  feelings 
with  which  the  German  people  regarded  themselves  after  the 
war,  singling  out  David  Friedrich  Strauss  as  the  represent- 
ative of  that  complacency ;  he  opposes  with  reformatory  zeal 
the  Hegelianism  which  still  lay  heavy  on  German  philosophy, 
and,  in  the  two  final  Unzeitgemassen  Betrachtungen^  points 
to  Schopenhauer  and  Wagner,  the  men  who  had  had  the 
chief  influence  on  his  development,  as  the  saviours  of  the 
age  from  "  Bildungsphilistertum."  Before,  however,  the  last 
Betrachtung  appeared,  a  gulf  opened  between  himself  and 
Wagner;  Nietzsche's  sensitive  nature  recoiled  from  the  prac- 
tical imperfections  of  the  Bayreuth  Festspiele  and  the  vulgarity 
of  their  supporters.  This  was  on  the  surface,  but  the  origin 
of  the  schism  lay  deeper  than  either  then  realised ;  the  two 
men  held  irreconcilable  "  Weltanschauungen  " — Wagner,  that 
pessimism  which,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  century,  had 
dominated  German  culture,  Nietzsche,  a  new  individualistic, 
joyous  optimism  ;  and  the  admiration  Nietzsche  had  felt 
for  the  triumphant  heroism  of  a  Siegfried,  ceased  before  the 
resigned  Christian  mysticism  of  Parsifal.  His  antagonism  to 
Wagner  found  its  final,  virulent  and  embittered  expression  in 
Der  Fall  Wagner  and  Nietzsche  contra  Wagner,  two  pamphlets 
written  in  1888,  on  the  eve  of  the  philosopher's  last  illness. 


CHAP.  XVI.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  613 

Having  broken  away  from  both  Wagner  and  Schopenhauer,  Other 
Nietzsche  entered  upon  what  has  been  called  his  second  wntin&s- 
period,  a  stage  of  positivism  to  which  belongs  Menschliclies, 
Allzunienschliches :  ein  Buck  fiir  freie  Geister  (1878-80),  while 
Morgenrothe :  Gedanken  itber  die  moralischen  Vorurtheile 
(1881)  and  Die  frohliche  Wissenschaft  (1882)  lead  up  to 
his  chief  book,  Also  sprach  Zarathustra :  ein  Buck  fur  Alle 
und  Keinen  (1883-91).  Jenseits  von  Gut  und  £ose,  Vor -spiel 
einer  Philosophic  der  Zukunft  (1886),  Zur  Genealogie  der 
Moral :  eine  Streitschrift  (1887),  and  Gotzen-Dcimmerung,  oder 
wie  man  mit  dem  Hammer  philosophirt  (1888),  may  be  re- 
garded as  supplements  to  Also  sprach  Zarathustra.  Ill-health 
prevented  Nietzsche  from  finishing  Der  Wille  zur  Macht : 
Versuch  einer  Umwerthung  aller  Werthe,  a  work  in  which 
he  proposed  to  gather  up  the  threads  of  his  philosophy  and 
set  forth  his  system.  Only  the  first  part,  Der  Antichrist: 
Versuch  einer  Kritik  des  Christentkums,  reached  completion 
(1888,  published  1895). 

Also  sprach  Zarathustra  —  the  book  by  which  Nietzsche  A  ho  sprach 
has  especial  claim  to  a  place  in  literary  history  —  is  the  %?J£~ 
most  original  prose  work  of  its  time.  The  Persian  prophet,  1883-91'. 
Zoroaster  or  Zarathustra,  serves  as  a  mouthpiece  for  the 
thinker's  own  philosophy,  and  this  Zarathustra  seeks  refuge 
from  the  eternal  recurrence  of  things — "  Die  Wiederkunft  des 
Gleichen " — in  the  doctrine  of  a  higher  manhood  than  the 
world  has  yet  known.  Also  sprach  Zarathustra  stands  on  the 
boundary  between  philosophy  and  poetry ;  it  may  or  may  not 
be  what  its  author  once  proclaimed  it,  the  "  deepest "  work  of 
its  time,  but,  from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  it  is  a  wonderfully 
beautiful  book ;  the  fulness  of  its  thought  and  its  grandiose 
Biblical  language  make  it  one  of  the  master-works  of  modern 
literature.  No  reader  can  be  insensible  to  the  beauty  of 
passages  like  those  on  the  "grosse  Sehnsucht,"  or  the  fol- 
lowing lines  from  "  Von  den  sieben  Siegeln  "  : — 

"Wenn  ich  dem  Meere  hold  bin  und  allem,  was  Meeres-Art  ist, 
und  am  holdesten  noch,  wenn  es  mir  zornig  widerspricht : 

Wenn  jene  suchende  Lust  in  mir  ist,  die  nach  Uncntdecktem 
die  Segel  treibt,  wenn  eine  Seefahrer-Lust  in  meiner  Lust  ist  : 

Wenn  je  mein  Frohlocken  rief :  'die  Kiiste  schwand — nun  fiel 
mir  die  letzte  Kette  ab — 

Das  Grenzenlose  braust  um  mich,  weit  liinaus  glanzt  mir  Raum 
und  Zeit,  wohlan  !  wohlauf !  altes  Herz  !' 


614 


THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Nietzsche's 
phil- 
osophy. 


Nietzsche 
as  a  poet. 


Oh  wie  sollte  ich  nicht  nach  cler  Ewigkeit  briinstig  sein  und 
nach  dem  hochzeitlichen  Ring  der  Ringe — dem  Ring  der  Wieder- 
kunft?"1 

Nietzsche  was  a  moral  philosopher  rather  than  a  meta- 
physician ;  his  works  are  practical  sermons  on  the  text, 
"Memento  vivere."  He  goes  back  to  the  springs  of  life,  to 
the  natural  man  ;  he  strips  society  of  the  dogmas  and  conven- 
tions that  have  gathered  round  it  in  the  course  of  the  ages, 
the  artificial  distinctions  of  good  and  evil,  and  regards,  as  its 
salvation,  a  return  to  the  first  principles  of  human  nature,  to 
the  domination  of  the  strong  and  the  assertion  of  the  in- 
dividual. The  social  duty  of  the  race  is  not  to  him,  as 
it  had  seemed  to  his  predecessors,  to  subordinate  the  in- 
dividual to  the  herd,  but  to  create  heroes,  great  men.  And 
the  hero  is  the  man  with  the  strong  will,  the  self-asserting 
genius,  who  has  risen  above  the  altruistic  virtues  of  his  weaker 
fellows — such  is  the  "  Ubermensch."  In  this  assertion  of  indi- 
vidualism, there  is  an  echo  of  the  Romantic  revolt  against  the 
humanitarianism  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Nietzsche  himself 
is  an  illustration  of  his  dogma  of  "die  ewige  Wiederkunft," 
and  the  parallel  which  has  been  drawn  between  his  conception 
of  the  "  tJbermensch,"  and  the  hero-worship,  evolved  by  Carlyle 
from  the  philosophy  of  Fichte,  is  not  a  wholly  imaginary 
one.  And  it  is  not  merely  in  the  individualism  of  his  philos- 
ophy that  Nietzsche  resembles  the  pioneers  of  Romanticism, 
nearly  a  hundred  years  before  him.  Like  Friedrich  Schlegel 
and  Novalis,  Nietzsche  is  a  thinker  in  aphorisms ;  and,  above 
all,  he  is  an  artist  in  the  use  of  words.  He  discovered  pos- 
sibilities in  the  German  language  of  which  the  classical 
masters  of  prose  knew  nothing;  his  rhythmic  periods  com- 
bine the  dignity  of  Luther's  language  with  the  dithyrambic 
style  of  that  kindred  genius  in  the  Romantic  period — kindred 
not  only  in  thought,  but  in  the  tragedy  of  his  life — Friedrich 
Holderlin.  Nietzsche,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  introduced 
Romance  qualities  of  clearness  and  terseness  in  German 
prose;  it  was  his  endeavour  to  free  it  from  those  elements 
which  he  described  as  "deutsch  und  schwer." 

It  is  sometimes  forgotten  that  Nietzsche  was  also  a  lyric 
poet,  although  his  Gedichte  und  Spriiche  (collected  in  1897) 
contain  a  number  of  poems  that  rank  with  the  best  of  the 
1  Werke,  6,  337. 


CHAP.  XVI.]        THE   NINETEENTH.  CENTURY. 

time.  Of  all  forms  of  contemporary  literature,  moreover,  the  The 
lyric  has  drawn  most  immediate  inspiration  from  this  thinker. 
The  chief  poet  of  the  epoch  is  the  Prussian  officer,  Detlev  D  von 
von  Liliencron,  who  was  born  in  Kiel  in  1844.  Liliencron's  Liliencron, 
Adjutantenritte  und  andre  Gedichte,  which  appealed  in  1883,  born  l844' 
is  full  of  manly  and  vigorous  verse,  and  contrasts  markedly 
with  the  musical  but  superficial  poetry  of  the  Munich  school. 
Among  the  younger  writers,  the  most  original  and  character- 
istic lyric  poets  are  Gustav  Falke  (born  1853),  F.  Avenarius 
(born  1856),  Arno  Holz  (born  1863),  Richard  Dehmel  (born 
1863),  K.  Henckell  (born  1864),  Franz  Evers  (born  1871), 
and  Carl  Busse  (born  1872).  More  varied  lyric  tones  are  to 
be  heard  in  the  work  of  O.  J.  Bierbaum  (born  1865),  while 
the  poetry  of  Stefan  George  (born  1868)  would  seem  to  point 
to  a  revival  of  Romantic  mysticism  and  symbolism.1  The  The  epic, 
epic,  which  stood  so  high  in  favour  with  the  writers  of  the 
previous  generation,  has  been  almost  entirely  neglected  by 
the  poets  who  pride  themselves  on  being  "  modern,"  Das  Lied 
der  Menschkeit  (1887  ff.),  by  the  brothers  Heinrich  and  Julius 
Hart  (born  1855  and  1859),  forming  a  solitary  exception. 
Robespierre  (1894),  on  the  other  hand,  an  ambitious  epic  by 
a  Viennese  poetess,  Marie  delle  Grazie  (born  1864),  belongs 
essentially  to  the  school  of  Hamerling. 

The  literary  revival  which  set  in  in  Germany  during  the  The 
last  two  decades  of  the  century  was,  in  great  measure,  a  result  realistic 

r  •    n  i        T»        •  n          i-         •         movement. 

of  foreign  influences,  French,  Russian,  and  Scandinavian 
naturalism  having  created  the  necessary  conditions.  Arno 
Holz,  Johannes  Schlaf  (born  1862),  and  Karl  Bleibtreu  (born 
1859)  formulated  the  principles  of  a  specifically  German 
realism,  and  illustrated  their  theories  by  realistic  lyrics, 
novels,  and  dramas.  The  drama  benefited  most  immediately 
by  the  new  movement,  and,  in  the  winter  of  1889-90,  the 
earliest  plays  of  Sudermann  and  Hauptmann  were  produced 
in  Berlin.  Hermann  Sudermann 2  is  an  East  Prussian,  and  H.  Suder- 
was  born  in  1857.  As  novelist  and  dramatist,  he  has,  to  a  mann.b 
large  extent,  learned  from  French  models ;  this  is  especially 
noticeable  in  his  careful  #z/7/<?#-painting  and  his  graceful  and 
concrete  style.  The  collection  of  "Novellen,"  Im  Zwielicht  Novels. 

1  A  selection  of  recent  German  lyrics  is  to  be  found  in  C.  Basse's  Neuere 
deutsche  Lyrik,  Leipzig,  1895  (new  ed.,  Halle,  1001). 

2  Cp.  W.  Kawerau,  Hermann  Sudermann,  Magdeburg,  1897. 


6i6 


THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Die  Ehre, 
1889. 


Heimat, 
1893. 


Das  Gliick 
im  \Vin- 
kel,  1895. 


(1887),  was  modelled  on  Maupassant's  work,  while  Frau 
Sorge  (1887),  one  of  the  most  pleasing  examples  of  recent 
German  fiction,  is  evidently  to  some  extent  autobiographical. 
Gesehwister,  two  short  stories,  appeared  in  1888,  and  in 
1889,  Der  Katzensteg,  a  romance  of  the  Napoleonic  invasion 
of  Prussia.  Sudermann's  most  ambitious  novel  is  Es  war 
(1894),  where,  however,  the  engrossing  ethical  conflict  is 
marred  by  a  leaning  towards  sensationalism,  both  in  plot 
and  style. 

But  it  is  as  a  dramatist  that  Sudermann  has  had  the 
greatest  influence  on  his  contemporaries.  His  first  play,  Die 
Ehre,  which  may  be  described  as  a  satire  on  the  arbitrary 
ideas  associated  with  the  word  "honour,"  was  performed  in 
November,  1889,  and  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  the  history 
of  the  German  stage.  The  interest  which  Die  Ehre  awak- 
ened was  due,  in  the  first  instance,  to  its  problematic  char- 
acter; it  is  an  effectively  constructed  drama,  in  which  the 
ideas  of  a  Berlin  factory-owner  and  his  family  are  contrasted 
with  those  of  one  of  his  employees ;  but  the  real  strength 
of  Die  Ehre  is  the  masterly  realism  with  which  the  inmates  of 
the  "Hinterhaus"  are  drawn.  Sodoms  Ende  (1890),  although 
displaying  more  careful  workmanship  than  Die  Ehre,  was 
decadent  in  subject  and  style,  and  hence  proved  less  to  the 
taste  of  the  public.  In  Heimat  (1893),  Sudermann  virtually 
repeated  the  dramatic  motive  of  Die  Ehre:  in  the  latter 
drama,  a  son  returned  after  long  absence  to  his  father's 
roof,  to  find  that  he  had  outgrown  his  home;  here,  it  is  a 
daughter.  The  situations  of  Heimat  are  more  or  less  sen- 
sational in  character,  but  the  drama  is  based  on  close  ob- 
servation, and  the  milieu  in  which  it  plays  is  excellently 
depicted.  More  than  any  other  of  this  writer's  dramas, 
it  illustrates  the  close  affinity  between  his  work  and  the 
"  biirgerliche  Trauerspiel " ;  Heimat  stands  in  the  direct  line 
of  succession  which,  beginning  with  the  sentimental  pieces  of 
Iffland,  culminated  in  Maria  Magdalene  and  Der  Erbforster. 
Sudermann's  next  plays  were  Die  Schmetterlingsschlacht  (1894) 
and  Das  Gliick  im  Winkel  (1895),  of  which  the  latter  is,  on 
the  whole,  the  finest  work  he  has  yet  written.  The  theatrical 
elements  of  Heimat  are  absent;  the  whole  atmosphere  is 
genuinely  poetic  ;  while  the  two  leading  characters,  the  East 
Prussian  Junker,  Baron  von  Rocknitz,  and  Frau  Elisabeth 


CHAP.  XVI.]       THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  617 

Wiedemann,  are  drawn  with  a  power  that  Sudermann  had 
previously  shown  only  in  depicting  the  lower  strata  of  society. 
There  is  more  of  the  subjective  charm  of  Frau  Sorge  in  Das 
Gliick  im  Winkel  than  in  any  other  of  his  dramatic  works. 

In  1896,  Sudermann  collected  three  one-act  pieces  under 
the  title  Morituri ;  of  these,  Teja  is  a  tragic  episode  from  Aforituri, 
the  Gothic  invasion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Fritzchen,  the  l8<?6> 
tragedy  of  a  young  officer  who  falls  in  a  duel,  Das  Eivig- 
Mannliche,  a  fantastic  satire  in  verse.  Morituri  was  succeeded 
by  Johannes  (1898),  an  effective  drama  in  prose,  on  the  sub-  Johannes, 
ject  of  John  the  Baptist,  which  the  author  provided  with  an  l898' 
impressive,  if  wholly  modern,  psychological  background.  His 
next  drama,  a  poetic  "  Marchen,"  Die  drei  Reiherfedern 
(1898),  was  too  deficient  in  na'ivetd,  both  of  verse  and  situa- 
tion, to  assert  itself  beside  other  "  Marchendramen "  of  the 
time;  and  in  his  latest  works,  Johannisfeuer  (1900)  and  Es 
lebe  das  Leben  (1902),  he  has  returned  to  the  drama  of  social 
life.  Although  Sudermann's  dramatic  work  is  deficient  in 
enduring  qualities,  he  is  a  writer  whose  ideas  are  of  very  real 
interest  and  importance  to  his  contemporaries,  and  he  has 
the  power  of  putting  them  in  concise  and  concrete  dramatic 
form,  blurred  neither  by  metaphysics  nor  by  romanticism. 
In  a  literature  such  as  that  of  Germany,  the  faculty  of  look- 
ing at  life  in  a  strictly  realistic  way  is  valuable,  even  although 
it  also  implies  a  limitation  which  makes  itself  felt  whenever 
Sudermann  tries  higher  flights.  Yet  even  if  in  his  plays  of 
modern  life  he  has  only  helped  to  free  the  German  drama 
from  a  slavish  imitation  of  the  later  French  playwrights,  he 
has  done  it  a  service  which  cannot  be  overlooked. 

The  most  original  dramatist  of  contemporary  German  litera- 
ture is  Gerhart  Hauptmann,1  who  was  born  in  1862,  at  Salz-  G.  Haupt- 
brunn  in  Silesia.  With  that  hesitation  in  deciding  upon  a  {^. 
career,  which  seems  characteristic  of  modern  writers  of  genius, 
Hauptmann  began  as  a  student  of  art  in  Breslau,  then  went 
to  the  University  of  Jena  to  study  natural  science.  After 
travelling  in  Spain  and  Italy,  he  published  an  epic,  Prome- 
thidenlos  (1885),  on  the  model  of  Childe  Harold.  Settling 
in  Berlin,  Hauptmann  came  into  touch  with  the  group  of 
naturalists  to  which  Holz  and  Schlaf  belonged,  and  the  re- 
suit  was  a  crude,  realistic  drama,  Vor  Sonnenaufgang  (1889),  dramas. 

1  Cp.  P.  Schlenther,  Gerhart  Hauptmann,  Berlin,  1898. 


6l8  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

which,  a  year  afterwards,  was  followed  by  Das  Friedensfest. 
Both  of  these  plays  show  the  influence  of  Zola  and  Tolstoi, 
while  Einsame  Menschen,  which  appeared  in  1891,  is  written 
in  the  manner  of  Ibsen.     It  was  not,  however,  until  after  the 
Die  Weber,   production  of  his  fourth  work,  Die  Weber, — originally  written 
1892.  jn  dialect  as  J)e  Waber  (1892) — that  Hauptmann  began  to 

be  generally  known.  The  subject  of  Die  Weber  is  the  rising 
of  the  Silesian  weavers  in  1844;  but  there  is  little  or  no 
plot  in  the  drama.  It  is  the  dramatisation  of  an  event  which 
involves,  without  distinction  of  persons,  a  whole  class  of 
society ;  the  misery  before  which  that  class  succumbs,  takes, 
as  has  well  been  said,  the  place  of  hero,  and  Die  Weber  is 
thus,  in  a  sense  undreamt-of  by  earlier  dramatists,  a  "Volks- 
drama."  This  was  the  first  of  Hauptmann's  plays  to  reveal 
his  remarkable  talent  for  dramatic  writing :  not  only  did  he 
succeed  in  awakening  interest  for  the  unpleasant  milieu  of  the 
drama,  but  he  gave  each  of  the  many  figures  a  definite  and 
clear-cut  personality,  and  that  solely  by  legitimate  dramatic 
means.  College  Grampian,  a  study  of  an  artist  fallen  on 
evil  days,  which  also  appeared  in  1892,  did  not  aim  so 
high  as  Die  Weber,  but  was  even  more  effective  on  the 
stage. 

In  1893,  Hauptmann  wrote  a  work  of  a  very  different 
Hanneies  kind  from  anything  he  had  hitherto  attempted :  Hanneles 
fahfTiZ  Himmelfahrt  is  a  strange  play  in  which  naturalism  and 
Romantic  poetry  appear  side  by  side.  Hannele  Mattern,  the 
child  of  a  drunken  mason,  has  tried  to  drown  herself;  she 
is  dragged  out  of  the  water  and  brought  to  the  almshouse, 
where  her  feverish  visions  are  represented  to  the  spectator. 
The  figures  and  stories  of  the  child's  imagination — all  that 
she  has  been  taught  of  death,  of  heaven  and  angels — take 
visible  form  and  become  associated  in  her  mind  with  her 
actual  life  and  surroundings ;  her  teacher  appears,  for  in- 
stance, as  Christ,  and  raises  her  to  life,  just  as  if  she  had  been 
Jairus's  daughter.  Finally,  the  dream  vanishes ;  the  crude 
reality  of  the  almshouse  returns ;  the  child  is  dead.  In  this 
attempt  to  portray  the  dreams  of  a  dying  child  of  the  people, 
Hauptmann  has  perhaps  unduly  accentuated  the  Romantic 
side  of  the  picture ;  the  contrast  between  Hannele's  dreams 
and  the  unmitigated  squalor  of  her  surroundings  jars  upon  the 
spectators  by  its  strong  contrast.  But  the  play  at  least  proved 


CHAP.  XVI.]        THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  6ig 

that  its  author  was  too  independent  a   dramatist   to   allow 
himself  to  be  hemmed  in  by  a  narrow  theory  of  realism. 

Der  Biberpelz  (1893),  "eine  Diebskomodie,"  is  a  slighter 
play,  and  wholly  realistic  in  style.  The  characters  are  clear 
cut  and  drawn  with  the  same  genial  humour  that  distin- 
guished College  Grampian,  Florian  Geyer  (1895),  Haupt-  Florian 
mann's  next  tragedy,  is  an  effort  to  break  down  the  prejudice  ^%"?' 
which  hinders  a  modern  writer  from  handling  historical  themes. 
Florian  Geyer  is  a  historical  drama  in  so  far  as  it  deals  with 
the  Peasants'  War  in  the  stormy  times  of  Gotz  von  Berlich- 
ingen ;  but  Hauptmann's  art  and  method  remain  the  same  as 
in  Die  Weber — in  its  technique,  in  fact,  Florian  Geyer  is  only 
Die  Weber  repeated  on  a  grander  scale.  Moreover,  the  sub- 
ject, as  Hauptmann  wished  to  treat  it,  was  too  unwieldy, 
the  personages  were  too  numerous,  and  where  clear  outlines 
and  bold  strokes  were  required,  his  minute  workmanship  was 
naturally  ineffectual. 

With  the  exception  of  Die  Ehre>  Die  versunkene  Glocke  Diever- 
(1897)  has  been  the  most  popular  drama  of  the  present  SQ^^ee 
period.  Still  another  side  of  its  author's  talent  is  revealed  1897. 
in  this  "  Marchendrama " ;  poetry,  imagination,  and  fairy-lore 
take  the  place  of  the  sordid  realities  of  his  early  plays.  A 
bellfounder  has  made  a  church-bell,  which  he  regards  as  his 
best  achievement,  but,  as  it  is  being  borne  to  the  church, 
the  waggon  is  overturned  by  a  "  Waldschrat "  or  faun,  the 
bell  sinks  into  a  lake,  and  Heinrich  the  bellfounder  almost 
loses  his  life.  He  falls  under  the  spell  of  an  elf,  Rautende- 
lein,  who  tempts  him  away  from  wife  and  home.  High  up 
in  the  mountains,  free  from  earthly  cares  and  lowly  aspira- 
tions, he  lives  for  his  work  alone,  until  the  tones  of  the 
sunken  bell  rise  from  the  lake  and  drag  him  down  to  earth 
again.  The  symbolism  and  allegory  of  the  poem  are  not 
difficult  to  understand ;  it  is  the  tragedy  of  the  artist's  life 
in  a  new  form.  When  more  closely  examined,  however,  Die 
versunkene  Glocke  has  many  realistic  features  :  the  human 
personages  are,  it  is  true,  indefinite  and  shadowy  types  com- 
pared with  Hauptmann's  earlier  characters,  but  the  super- 
natural figures,  the  Waldschrat,  the  Nickelmann,  and  even 
Rautendelein  are  thoroughly  realistic  and  bear  witness  to  the 
literary  influence  of  Germany's  greatest  modern  artist,  Arnold 
Bocklin  (1827-1901).  Thus  when,  in  his  next  work,  Haupt- 


620 


THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 


Fiihrmann 

J/enschel, 

1898. 


Minor 
dramatists. 


Austrian 
writers. 


mann  returned  to  the  milieu  of  his  first  dramas,  the  step 
was  not  so  great  as  at  first  appeared.  Fuhrmann  Henschel 
(1898)  is  a  tragedy  of  village  life.  The  carrier  of  a  Silesian 
"Badeort,"  whose  wife  dies  at  the  beginning  of  the  play, 
marries  Hanna  Schal,  his  servant,  who  has  made  herself  in- 
dispensable in  his  household ;  but  the  words  with  which  his 
dying  wife  has  warned  him  against  Hanna  haunt  him  like  the 
Furies  of  the  ancient  drama ;  his  second  marriage  brings  noth- 
ing but  misery  upon  him,  and  ultimately,  in  despair,  he  hangs 
himself.  While  Fuhrmann  Henschel  thus  conformed  to  the 
traditional  methods  of  tragedy,  Schluck  nnd  Jau  (1900)  was  a 
fantastic  comedy  on  original  lines,  the  subject  having  been 
suggested  by  the  prologue  to  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  ;  the 
hero  of  the  piece  is  a  vagabond  who  is  made  to  believe 
that  he  is  a  prince.  In  1900,  Hauptmann  also  wrote 
Michael  Kramer,  a  drama  of  artist-life,  in  which  the  interesting 
characters  hardly  compensated  for  the  want  of  dramatic  action, 
and  in  1901,  Der  rote  Hahn,  a  sequel  to  Der  Biberpelz. 

Beside  Sudermann  and  Hauptmann,  a  number  of  minor 
writers  have  helped  to  give  the  German  stage  that  promi- 
nence as  a  literary  institution,  for  which  it  was  admirably 
fitted  by  its  technical  and  artistic  organisation.  With  plays 
like  Alexandra  (1888)  and  Eva  (1889),  Richard  Voss  (born 
1851)  was,  to  some  extent,  a  forerunner  of  the  new  school  of 
dramatists.  Max  Halbe  (born  1865)  is  the  author  of  one  or 
two  skilful  dramas,  such  as  Jugend  (1893)  and  Mutter  Erde 
(1898);  and  interesting  plays  have  also  been  written  by 
W.  Kirchbach  (born  1857),  O.  E.  Hartleben  (born  1864), 
and  Ernst  Rosmer  (pseudonym  for  Elsa  Bernstein,  born 
1866).  Comedy  is  still  what  it  has  always  been,  the  weak 
side  of  the  German  drama ;  mention  has,  however,  to  be 
made  of  the  work  of  Max  Dreyer  (born  1862),  while  Ludwig 
Fulda  (born  1862)  has  employed  to  good  advantage  his  talent 
for  writing  graceful  verse  by  translating  Moliere's  masterpieces 
(1892).  Fulda's  original  plays,  the  most  successful  of  which 
was  Der  Talisman  (1893),  are  built  upon  conventional  motives 
and  deficient  in  seriousness  of  aim.  In  Austria,  the  most 
gifted  of  the  younger  dramatists  is  Arthur  Schnitzler  (born 
1862),  whose  finely  pointed  dialogues  (Anatol,  1893)  reveal 
a  talent  that  is  more  French  than  German  ;  his  plays  (Liebelei, 
1895;  Das  Vermachtnis,  1898;  Der  griine  Kakadu,  1899; 


CHAP.  XVI.]        THE    NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  621 

Der  Schleier  der  Beatrice,  1900)  are,  despite  a  fondness  for 
morbid  problems  and  motives,  characteristically  Austrian  in 
tone  and  style.  Hermann  Bahr  (born  1863),  who  is,  at  the 
same  time,  the  leading  Austrian  critic  of  the  new  school,  has 
also  written  dramas  (Das  Tschaperl^  1898;  Der  Apostel,  1901) 
which  have  been  popular  in  Vienna.  Most  promising  of  all 
the  younger  Austrians  is  Hugo  von  Hofmannsthal  (born  1874), 
who  has  learnt  much  from  the  Italian  writer,  D'Annunzio. 
None  of  the  lyric  poets  of  the  time  has  written  verses  so  full 
of  music  and  subtle  imagery  as  are  to  be  found  in  Hofmanns- 
thal's  poetic  plays,  Der  Thor  und  der  Tod  (1894),  Die  Hochzeit 
der  Sobeide  and  Der  Abenteurer  und  die  Sangerin  (1899). 

Almost  contemporaneous  with  the  dramatic  revival,  the  The  realis- 
novel,  under  the  influence  of  French  and  Russian  models,  tic  novel- 
entered  upon  a  new  stage  of  its  development.  We  have 
already  traced  the  inroads  of  modern  realism  in  the  work  of 
Fontane,  and  have  seen  how  Sudermann's  novels  benefited  by 
the  stimulus  of  foreign  writers.  Realistic  novels,  in  the  re- 
stricted sense  of  that  word,  have  been  written  by  H.  Conradi 
(1862-90),  M.  Kretzer  (born  1854),  M.  G.  Conrad  (born 
1846),  Karl  Bleibtreu  (born  1859),  and  K.  Alberti  (born 
1862).  In  spite,  however,  of  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
French  naturalism  was  greeted  in  Germany  about  1880, 
neither  novel  nor  drama  long  remained  faithful  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  movement.  Just  as  Hauptmann  turned  from 
Die  Weber  to  Hanneles  Himmelfahrt,  a  writer  like  Kretzer 
followed  up  the  undiluted  naturalism  of  Meister  Timpe  (1888) 
with  the  supernaturalism  and  naturalism  of  Das  Gesicht 
Christi  (1897).  Characteristic  of  the  latest  development  of 
German  fiction  is  the  large  number  of  good  novels  written 
by  women.  Besides  fine  poetic  talents  like  Ricarda  Huch 
(born  1864)  and  Isolde  Kurz(born  1863),  who  have  published 
mainly  short  stories  and  verse,  Helene  Bohlau  (born  1859), 
Gabriele  Reuter  (born  1859),  and  Clara  Viebig  (born  1860) 
may  also  be  mentioned  as  representative  novelists. 

The  criterion  of  an  outstanding  epoch  in  literature  has  always 
been  not  so  much  great  poetry  as  great  personalities,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  Richard  Wagner,  whose  work  only  partly 
belongs  to  literature,  all  Germany's  prominent  literary  person- 
alities— Lessing  and  Herder,  Schiller  and  Goethe — were  men 
of  the  eighteenth,  not  the  nineteenth  century.  Thus  although 


622  THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY.  [PART  V. 

the  latter  century,  by  virtue  of  the  extraordinary  richness  and 
variety  of  its  literature,  occupies  a  larger  space  in  a  history 
of  German  letters  than  any  preceding  period  of  the  same 
duration,  it  has  not  been  as  decisive  an  epoch  for  the  national 
life  as  that  which  culminated  with  the  year  1800.  The  general 
movement  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  a  gradual  descent 
from  the  "  Bliitezeit "  with  which  the  century  opened,  but  a 
descent  full  of  interesting  episodes  and  pauses,  as  well  as 
occasional  recoveries  of  lost  ground.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  period,  Germany  was,  as  we  have  seen,  at  the  zenith  of 
her  literary  greatness ;  Schiller  was  writing  his  chief  dramas, 
Goethe  completing  Faust ;  the  Romantic  Movement  was 
rapidly  extending  its  influence  over  every  literature  in  Europe  ; 
under  the  stimulus  of  Romanticism,  Kleist  and  Grillparzer 
were  fitting  themselves  to  be  Schiller's  successors,  while  lyric 
poetry  flowed  more  freely  and  abundantly  than  at  any  time 
since  the  heyday  of  the  Minnesang.  With  Goethe's  death 
and  the  July  Revolution  came  a  pause ;  the  political  era 
in  German  literature  set  in ;  French  influence  asserted  itself 
as  it  had  not  done  since  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  After  the  Revolution  of  1848,  which  extinguished 
the  political  hopes  of  a  whole  generation,  pessimism  settled 
down  over  German  literature,  and  national  writers,  like  Hebbel 
and  Keller,  were  little  heeded  until  their  day  was  over,  or 
nearly  over.  Then  came  the  war  with  France,  and  the 
German  national  spirit  awakened  anew.  Wagner's  dramatic 
work  roused  the  German  theatre  from  its  lethargy  and  in- 
differentism,  and  the  novel  and  the  lyric  shook  themselves 
free  from  the  burdens  of  mid-century  tradition.  In  how  far 
this  revived  activity  of  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century 
will  leave  a  permanent  mark  upon  the  development  of  German 
literature,  it  is  for  the  future  to  decide. 


INDEX. 


Abbt,  T.,  273,  291,  294,  296. 
Abraham     a     Santa     Clara     (Ulrich 

Megerle),  223  f. 
Albert,  H.,  211  (note). 
Alberti,  K.,  621. 
Albertinus,  A.,  228  (note). 
Alberus,  E.,  151,  179. 
Albrecht  von  Eyb,  168. 
Albrecht  von  Halberstadt,  84  f. 
Albrecht  von  Johannsdorf,  118. 
Albrecht  von  Kemenaten,  79  (note). 
Albrecht  von  Scharfenberg,  107. 
Alcuin,  13,  18. 
Alexander  der  Grosse,  145. 
Alexander  lied.      See  Lamprecht  and 

Ulrich  von  Eschenbach. 
Alexis,  W.     See  W.  Haring. 
Allegory,  137  f.,  145  f. 
Alliteration,  4,  17,  21,  24,  585,  602. 
Alpharts  Tod,  79. 
Alxinger,  J.  B.  von,  289. 
Amadis  de  Gaula,  198. 
Anacreontic    poetry,    242   f.,    256   ff., 

303,  3i6,  554. 
Anegenge,  42. 

Angelus  Silesius.     See  J.  Scheffler. 
Annolied,  Das,  43,  206. 
Antichrist,  Spiel  vom,  35. 
Anton    Ulrich,    Duke   of    Brunswick, 

232. 

Anzengruber,  L.,  558,  606  f.,  609. 
Arigo  (H.  Leubing?),  168,  187. 
Arminius  (Hermann),  5. 
Arndt,  E.  M.,  439  ff.,  444,  475. 
Arnim,    Bettina  von,   445,    466,    472, 

516,  552- 
Arnim,  L.  A.  von,  441,  458,  460  ff., 

469.  475.  482,  484,  491,  496,   498, 

Si6,  557. 
Arnold,  G.,  238. 
Artus  (Arthur),  King,  and  Arthurian 

romance,  xviii,  xxv  f.,  77  f.,  86  ff., 

93  ff.,  134,  604. 


Athis  und  Prophilias,  85. 

Attila  (Atli,  Etzel),  8  f.,  16,  29,  59,  67 

f.,  78  f. 
Auerbach,   B.,  411,  658  f.,  561,  571, 

609. 
Auersperg,  A.  A.  von  (A.  Griin),  540, 

641,  543-  550- 
Austrian  literature,  xxiv,  266  f.(  289  f., 

343  f-.  433.  529  ff.,  550,  591  f.,  605 

ff.,  620  f. 
Ava,  Frau,  43. 
Avenarius,  F.,  615. 
Ayrenhoff,  C.  H.  von,  344,  530. 
Ayrer,  J.,  200  ff. 

Babo,  J.  M.,  343. 

Bahr,  H.,  621. 

Balde,  J.,  219. 

Ballad  poetry.     See  Volkslied. 

Barbarossa,     Kaiser,    35,    113,    118, 

554- 

Barditus,  5. 
"  Bards,"  the,  266  f. 
Basedow,  J.  B.,  292. 
Baudissin,  W.,  417. 
Bauerle,  A.,  539. 
Bauernfeld,  E.  von,  638,  543. 
Baumbach,  R.,  590. 
Baumgarten,  A.  G.,  256. 
Bayreuth  Festspiele,  the,  598, 602,  604, 

6nf. 
Beast  epic  and  fable,  31,  54  f.,  150  ff., 

254,  356  f. 
Beck,  K.,  550. 
Becker,  N.,  544  f. 
Beer,  J.     See  G.  Meyerbeer 
Beer,  M.,  494,  496. 
Beethoven,  L.  van,  495,  529. 
Beheim,  M.,  160,  164. 
Benediktinerre_!;el(O\d  High  German), 

14. 

Benedix,  R.,  671,  605. 
Beowulf,  xvii,  17,  20,  72. 


624 


INDEX. 


Be>anger,  P.  J.  de,  xxiii,  449,  471,  489. 

Berchter  (Herchtung),  Duke,  45,  80  f. 

Bernger  von  Horheim,  117. 

Bernstein,  E.  (E.  Rosmer),  620. 

Berthold  von  Holle,  108. 

Berthold  von  Regensburg,  139,  166. 

Besser,  J.  von,  240,  244,  264. 

Bible,  the  Gothic,  6  f. 

Bible,     translations    of    the     (before 

Luther),  167.     See  also  M.  Luther. 
Bierbaum,  O.  J.,  615. 
Birch- Pfeiffer,  C.,  571. 
Birck,  S.  (X.  Betulius),  184,  186. 
Bismarck,  O.  von,  596. 
Biterolf  und  Dietlieb,  78. 
Bitzius,  A.     See  J.  Gotthelf. 
Bleibtreu,  K.,  615,  621. 
Blumauer,  J.  A.,  289. 
Blumenorden,  Der  gekrbnte,  210  f. 
Blumenthal,  O.,  605. 
Bockh,  P.  A.,  461. 
Bocklin,  A.,  619. 
Bodenstedt,  F.,  486,  587  ff. 
Bodmer,  J.  J.,  244,  245,  248  ff.,  256, 

260  ff.,  283  f.,  337  (note). 
Bohlau,  H.,  621. 
Bohme,  J.,  217,  238,  426. 
Boie,  C.  H.,  298  f. 
Boileau-Despr&uix,  N.,  xxi,  208,  240 

f.,  246,  251. 
Boner,  U.,  150. 
Bonifacius  (Winfrith),  n,  13. 
Boppe,  Meister,  132. 
Borck,  K.  W.  von,  250. 
Borkenstein,  H.,  251. 
Borne,  L.,  407,  603  f.,  506,  510,  515, 

5i7- 

Brachvogel,  A.  E.,  570. 
Brant,  S.,  153  ff.,  167  f.,  177  f.,   189, 

194. 

Brawe,  J.  W.  von,  272,  337  (note). 
Breitinger,  J.  J.,  244,  245,  248  ff.,  256, 

260. 

Bremer  Beitriige,  249  ff. 
Brentano,  Bettina.    See  B.  von  Arnim. 
Brentano,    C.   M.,  441,  468  ff.,  469, 

472,  485,  498,  508,  557. 
Br'entano,  Sophie  (S.  Mereau),  460. 
Biichner,  G.,  616,  570. 
Buchner,  L.,  673,  585. 
Bucholtz,  A.  H.,  232. 
Biihel,  Hans  von,  145. 
Burckhardt,  J.,  596. 
Burger,  G.  A.,  xxii,  298,  302,  304  ff., 

340.  417,  419,  495. 
Burggraf  von  Regensburg,  the,  57. 
Burgundians,  the,  8,  59,  77. 
Burkart  von  Hohenfels,  130. 
Busch,  W.,  595. 
Busse,  C.,  615. 


Byron,  Lord,  xxiii,  449,  454,  488  f., 
508,  540.  543,  547,  551,  555,  617. 

Coedmon,  19. 

Cassar,  Julius,  4. 

Calderon  de  la  Barca,  xxi,  418,  424, 

498,  538. 

Calendar  (Gothic),  7. 
Canitz,  R.  von,  240,  244. 
Carmen   ad  Deum    (Old    High  Ger- 
man), 14. 

Carmina  Burana,  55. 
Castelli,  J.  F.,  539. 
Catonis,  Disticha,  34  (Notker),  133  f. 
Celtes,  K.,  169,  182,  204. 
Cervantes,  M.  de  (Don  Quixote),  xxi, 

228  (note),  284,  418,  425. 
Chamisso,  A.  von,  464,  470  ff.,  474, 

480  f.,  488  f.,  552. 
Charles  the  Great  (Karl  der  Grosse),  3, 

12  ff.,  18,  26,  78,  86  f.,  145. 
Charms,  xvii,  5,  12. 
Chivalry,  xviii,  44,  47,  49  ff.,  62,  83, 

86  f.,  nsf.,  143  f. 
Christianity,  introduction  of,  n. 
Christmas  plays,  34  f. 
Ckristus  und  die  Samariterin,  26. 
Clajus,  J.     See  J.  Klaj. 
Claudius,  M.,  302  f. 
Clauren,  H.     See  C.  Heun. 
Colin,  P.,  145. 
Collin,  H.  J.  von,  530. 
Columbanus,  n. 
Conrad,  M.  G.,  621. 
Conradi,  H.,  621. 
Corneille,  P.,  xxi,  273,  533. 
Cornelius,  P.  von,  449. 
Court  epic,  32,  51  ff.,  71  f.,  76  ff.,  82 

ff.,  140,  147. 

Cramer,  J.  A.,  250  f.,  273. 
Crescentia,  44. 
Crestien  de  Troyes,  xxvi,  86  f.,  89  ff., 

104. 

Creutzer,  C.  F.,  461. 
Cronegk,  J.  F.  von,  272. 
Crotus  Rubianus.     See  J.  Jager. 
Crusades,  the,  39,  46  f.,  60  f.,  143  f. 
Curtius,  E.,  552. 

Dach,  S.,  207,  211,  241. 

Dahn,  K.,  579,  580,  589. 

Dalberg,  W.  H.  von,  332,  342. 

Darwin,  C.,  449,  573. 

Daumer,  G.  F.,  486. 

David  von  Augsburg,  138,  166. 

Dedekind,  F.,  194. 

Defoe,  D.  (Robinson  Crusoe},  231. 

Dehmel,  R..  615. 

Deinhardstein,  J.  L.,  603. 

Denis,  M.,  266  f. 


INDEX. 


625 


Deutsche  Bund,  the,  502. 

Dialect    literature,   183,   213,    222    (., 

410  f.,  560  f.,  606. 
Didactic  poetry,  59,  133  ff. 
Diderot,  D.,  xxii,  274,  324,  342. 
Diet  mar  von  Aist,  56  f. 
Dietrich,  77  ff. 
Dietrichs  Flucfit,  79. 
Dietrich  von  Bern,  8,  45  f.,  59  f.,  77 

ff.,   81.      See  also  Theodorich    the 

Great. 

Dingelstedt,  F.,  549. 
Dominicans,  the,  166. 
Dorfpoesie,    hbfische,    128    ff.,     148, 

157- 
Drama,  beginnings  of  the,  xx,  5,  34  f., 

iSoff. 

Drama,  the  liturgic,  34  f. 
Dranmor.     See  F.  von  Schmid. 
Dreikonigsspiel,  35. 
Dreyer,  M.,  620. 
Drollinger,  K.,  244. 
Droste-Hiilshoff,  A.  von,  551,  555  f. , 

570,  59°- 

Droysen,  J.  G.,  596. 
Diirer,  A.,  191,  422  f. 

Easter  Plays,  35,  180. 

Ebers,  G.,  579  f.,  589. 

Ebert,  J.  A.,  251. 

Ebner-Eschenbach,  M.  von,  608  f. 

Ecbasis  Captivi,  30  f.,  39,  54. 

Eckenlied,  Das,  33,  78  f. 

Eckermann,  J.  P.,  358,  446,  449  f. 

Eckhart,  Meister,  xix,  166  f. 

Eckhof,  K.,  342. 

Edda,  the,  9,  17,  600. 

Eichendorff,  J.  von,  xxiii,  462,  464,  472 

ff.,  480,  486  ff.,  508  f.,  520  f.,  543, 

584- 

Eike  von  Repkow,  139. 
Eilhart  von  Oberge,  53  f.,  82,  86. 
Einhard,  26. 
Ekkehard    of   St    Gall    (Waltharius 

manu  fortis),  29  f.,  32  (589). 
Elbschwanenorden,  the,  210,  213. 
Elisabeth   von    Nassau -Saarbriicken, 

147. 

Engel,  J.  J.,  292. 
Englische  Comodianten,  191,  199  ff., 

214. 

Enikel,  J.,  108. 
Epic,  beginnings  of  the,  7  ff.,  17,  29 

f«.  32,  4i,  55- 
Epic,   Court,    Popular,    Spielmann's. 

See  Court  epic,  &c. 
Epiphany  plays,  35. 
Epistola  obscurorum  virorum,  170. 
Eraclius,  85. 
Erasmus,  D.,  169  f.,  195. 

2 


Ermanarich,  7,  59,  79. 

Ermenrikes  Dod,  Koning,  162. 

Ernst,  Herzog.     See  Hersog  Ernst. 

Eschenburg,  J.  J.,  284. 

Etzel.     See  Attila. 

Kulenspiegel,  Till,  149,  196. 

Evers,  F.,  615. 

Exodus,  translations  of,  41,  42. 

Eyb,  A.  von.     See  Albrecht  von  Eyb. 

Ezzolied,  Das,  40,  43. 

Fable,  the  Beast.     See  Beast  Fable. 

Facetias,  149. 

Falke,  G.,  615. 

Fastnachtsspiele,  155,  181,  183,  189  f., 

202,  213. 

Fate-tragedy.    See  Schicksalstragbdie. 
Faust  (Volksbuch),  180,  198  f.,  497. 

See  also  Goethe,  Grabbe,  Klinger, 

Lenau,   Lessing,  Miiller,   and  note 

to  328. 

Feuerbach,  L.  A.,  572. 
Fichte,  J.  G.,   363,  368,  402  f.,  419, 

428,  438,  475  ff.,  614. 
Fischart,  J.,  194  ff.,  224  f.,  227. 
Fitger,  A.,  605. 
Flacius,  M.    See  M.  Vlacich. 
Fleck,  K.,  no. 
Fleming,   P.,   207,   211   f.,    217,    241, 

524- 

Floris  und  Blancheflur,  54. 
Folz,  H.,  155,  181,  187,  189. 
Fontane,  T.,  579,  609  f.,  621. 
Forster,  J.  G.,  347,  380,  401. 
Fouque',  F.  de  la  Motte,  464,  469  f., 

480  f. 

Franciscans,  the,  138  f.,  166. 
Francke,  A.  H.,  238. 
Franckenberg,  A.  von,  217. 
Franco-German  war,   the,    548,   553, 

586,  596,  598,  605. 
Fran9ois,  L.  von,  585. 
Frankfurter,  P.,  149. 
Franks,  the,  10  f. 
Franzos,  K.  E.,  609. 
Frauenlob.  See  Heinrich  von  Meissen. 
Freidank  (Vridanc),  135  f.,  140,  154. 
Freiligrath,  F.,  512,  545,  546  ff.,  552 

ff. 

Frey,  H.    See  M.  Greif. 
Frey,  J.,  193. 
Frey  tag,  G.,  573  ff. 
Friedrich  der  Grosse,  245,  257,  259  f., 

276,  344i  468.  492- 
Friedrich  von  Hausen,  117  ff. 
Frischlin,  P.  N.,  185  f. 
Fruchtbringende     Gesellschaft,     the, 

209  f. 

Fiietrer,  U.,  145. 
Fulda,  L.,  620. 
R 


626 


INDEX. 


Gall,  St.    See  St  Gall. 

Gal/us,  Lobgesang  auf  den  heiligen,  29. 

Gartner,  K.  C.,  250  f. 

Garve,  C.,  292. 

Gaudy,  F.  von,  471,  489. 

Geibel,  E.,  546,  Ml  ff.,  586  ff.,  598. 

Geiler  of  Kaisersberg,  J.,  167  f.,  177, 
225. 

Gellert,  C.  F.,  xxi,  251,  252  if..  257, 
289,  292,  309. 

Gemmingen,  O.  H.  von,  342. 

Genesis,  Anglo-Saxon,  21. 

Genesis,  Old  Saxon,  19  ff. 

Genesis,  Vienna,  41  f. 

Genesis,  Vorauer,  42. 

Gengenbach,  P.,  183. 

Geniezeit,  the.  See  Sturm  und 
Drang. 

Gentz,  F.  von,  475. 

Georg,  Lied  vom  heiligen,  26. 

George,  S.,  615. 

Gerhardt,  P.,  219  f. 

German,  characteristics  of  Middle 
High,  41. 

German,  High  and  Low,  10  f. 

Germanic  races,  the,  3  ff. 

Germans,  East  and  West,  4. 

Gerok,  F.  K.  von,  527. 

Gerstacker,  F.,  579. 

Gerstenberg,  H.  W.  von,  266,  323. 

Gervinus,  G.  G.,  515. 

Gessner,  S.,  267,  300,  327,  400. 

Gesta  romanorum,  149. 

Giesebrecht,  W.,  596. 

Gilm,  H.,  551.. 

Gleich,  J.  A.,  539. 

Gleim,  J.  W.  L.,  256  ff. 

Glichesaere,  Heinrich  der.  See  Hein- 
rich  der  Glichesaere. 

Glosses,  Old  High  German,  12. 

Gluck,  C.  W.  von,  278,  334  f. 

Gliick,  E.    See  B.  Paoli. 

Gnaphasus,  G.,  183. 

Gockingk,  L.  F.  G.  von,  298,  302  f. 

Goldemar,  79. 

Goliards,  the,  55. 

Gtirres,  J.  J.  von,  441,  458,  462  f., 
472. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  xxii  f.,  xxvii,  82, 
116,  126,  143,  260,  265,  276,  288, 
295  ff.,  301,  307, 308  ff.,  323  ff.,  334, 
337  (note),  339  ff.,  348  ff.,  366,  367 
ff.,  374 ff.,  387  f.,  393  ff.,  398  f..  411, 
419  f.,  422,  431,  435,  438,  443  ff., 
458,  462,  466,  468  f.,  484,  487  f., 
497,  499,  504-  507  f-,  Sio,  512,  514 
f.,  520.  526,  529  f.,  534,  540,  543, 
577,  594,  621  f. ;  Clavigo,  317  f., 
322,  350  ;  Dichtung  und  Wahrheit, 
309,  311,  447  f.,  512;  Egmont,  321 


f.,  352;  Faust,  199,  319  ff.,  327, 
352,  377,  379  ff.,  443,  462  ff.,  494 
527,  622 ;  Gotz  von  Berlichingcn, 
261,  308,  313  ff.,  318,  321  f.,  326, 
343.  35°,  421,  435  ;  Hermann  und 
Dorothea,  89,  300,  369,  374  ff.,  385 
f.,  400,  411,  567  ;  Iphigenic  auf 
Tauris,  322,  350  ff.,  383  ff.,  385, 
387,  411,  443,  532;  Lyric  poetry, 
105,  243,  309  ff.,  325,  350,  376  f., 
447,  473  ;  Torquato  Tasso,  321, 
350  ff.,  385  f.,  387,  443,  532;  Die 

Wahlverwandtschaften,      445     ff.  ; 

Werther,  267,  270,  286,  289  f.,  304, 
307,  315  f. ,  350,  406,  409,  421,  445 
f.  ;  Der  Westostliche  Divan,  448, 

450  f.,  499,  587  ;    Wilhelm  Melster, 
309,  345  f.,  349,  351,   357  ff.,  368, 
403,  405  f.,  415,  423,  427,  445,  448, 

451  f.,    474,   497,    526,    574,    581 ; 
Xenien    (with    Schiller),    252,    270, 
287,  368. 

Goths,  the,  xvii,  4,  5  f. 

Gotter,  F.  W.,  298,  312,  337  (note), 

532. 

Gottfried  von  Neifen,  130,  162. 
Gottfried    von   Strassburg    ( Tristan), 

xxvi,  53  f.,  82  f.,  91,  97,  99  ff.,  no, 

112,  264,  527,  603. 
Gotthelf,  J.  (A.  Bitzius),  557  f. 
Gottingen    Dichterbund,    the    (Hain- 

bund),  267,  298  ff.,  331  f.,  399  f. 
Gottschall,  R.  von,  570. 
Gottsched,  J.  C.,  xxviii,  208,  240  f., 

243,  245  ff.,  252  f.,  256,  260,  268, 

271  ff.,  309,   337   (note),   388,  456, 

530. 

Gottsched,  L.  A.,  247. 
Gotz,  J.  N.,  256,  258. 
Gotz  von  Berlichingen,  47,  313  f.,  619. 
Goeze,  J.  M.,  280. 
Grabbe,  C.  D.,  493  f. 
GrafKudolf,  54. 
Gral,  the,  94  ff.,  107  f.,  497. 
Grazie,  M.  delle,  615. 
Greek  Revolt,  Poetry  of  the,  488  ff., 

525- 

Greif,  M.  (H.  Frey),  462,  587,  688. 

Griepenkerl,  R.,  570. 

Grillparzer,  F. ,  xxiii,  xxvii,  397,  438, 
467,  529,  630  ff.,  543,  562,  607,  622  ; 
Die  Ahnfrau,  433,  631  f. ;  Das 
goldene  Vliess,  632  f.,  566 ;  Konig 
Ottokars  Gluck  und  Ende,  534,  536  ; 
Des  Meeres  und  der  Liebe  Wellen, 
535  f.  ;  Sappho,  532,  534:  Der 
Traum  ein  Leben,  536  f.  ;  Ein 
treuer  Diener  seines  Herrn,  534  f.  ; 
Weh  dent,  der  liigf,  xxvii,  537. 

Grimm,  H.,  597. 


INDEX. 


627 


Grimm,  T.,  463  f. 

Grimm,  W. ,  463  f. 

Grimmelshausen,   J.    J.   C.  von,   xxi, 

226,  227  ff. 
Grisebach,  E.,  591. 
Grosse,  J.,  588. 
Groth,  K.,  561. 
Grotius,  H.,  206,  239. 
Grim,  A.     See  A.  A.  von  Auersperg. 
Gryphius,   A.,  xxi,  213  ff.,  217,  230, 

233.  464- 

Guarini,  G.  B.,  233. 
Gudrun,  52,  59,  72  ff.,  79,  81  f.,  104, 

140. 

Gunderode,  K.  von,  516. 
Giinther,  J.  C.,  241,  244,  257,  431. 
Gutzkow,  K.,  502  f.,  610  ff.,  514,  517, 

558  f.,  562,  573,  577,  585. 

Haeckel,  E.,  573. 

Hacklander,  F.  W.,  579. 

Hadamar  von  Laber,  146. 

Hadloub,  J.,  131  (582). 

Hafiz,  450,  485  f. 

Hagedorn,  F.  von,  242  f. ,  254,  256  f., 

283. 

Hagen,  F.  H.  von  der,  418. 
Hahn-Hahn,  I.,  584  f. 
Hainbund,  Der.    See  Gottingen  Dich- 

terbund. 
Halbe,  M.,  620. 
Halle  or  Prussian  School,  the,  256  ff., 

267,  270,  302. 
Haller,   A.   von,    243    f.,    255,    259, 

267. 
Halm,  F.    See  E.  von  Munch-Belling- 

hausen. 

Hamann,  J.  G.,  293  f. 
Hamerling,  R.,  591  f. 
Hammer-Purgstall,  J.  von,  450,  485. 
Handel,  G.  F.,  241. 
Happel,  E.  W.,  232. 
Hardenberg,    F.    L.    von    (Novalis), 

407,  424,  425  ff,  429,  460,  468,  475, 

478,  484,  581,  612. 
Haring,  W.  (W.  Alexis),  491,  492,  552, 

579,  589,  609. 
Harsdbrffer,  G.  P.,  210. 
Hart,  H.  and  J.,  578  (note),  6ic. 
Hartleben,  O.  E.,  620. 
Hartman  (Votn  Glauben},  40. 
Hartman  von  Aue,  85  ff,  97,  99,  104, 

io6f.,  119  f. 
Hartmann,  E.  von,  591. 
Hartmann,  M.,  550  f. 
Hatzlerin,  Klara,  165. 
Hauff,  W.,  491  f.,  525. 
Hauptmann,  G.,  615,  617  ff.,  621. 
Hausrath,  A.  (G.  Taylor),  579  f. 
Haym,  R.,  596. 


Hebbel,  C.  F.,  xxiii,  xxvii,  470,  493, 

562  ff.,  600,  616,  622. 
Hebel,  J.  P.,  410  f.,  495. 
Hegel,  G.  W.  F.,  476  ff.,  502,   515, 

572  f.,  591,  6n. 
Heidelberg  Romanticists,  the,  458  ff., 

518  ff.,  528. 
Heine,  H.,  xxiii,  459,  474  f.,  487,  489, 

495.  498,  500,  503.  604  ff.,  513,  520 

f.,  541,543.  554  ff.,  614. 
Heinrich  VI.,  Kaiser,  115,  117,  122. 
Heinrich  der  GHchesaere,  54  f. 
Heinrich  der  Vogler,  79. 
Heinrich  Julius  of  Brunswick,  Duke, 

200  f. 

Heinrich  von  dem  Tiirlin,  106  f. 
Heinrich  von  Freiberg,  103,  114. 
Heinrich  von  Hesler,  145. 
Heinrich  von  Laufenberg,  165. 
Heinrich  von    Meissen    (Frauenlob), 

132,  159  f. 

Heinrich  von  Melk,  41  f. 
Heinrich   von    Morungen,    118,    126, 

128,  130. 

Heinrich  von  Mtiglin,  159. 
Heinrich  von  Neuenstadt,  114. 
Heinrich  von  Rugge,  117. 
Heinrich  von  Veldeke,  20,  83  ff.,  99, 

116  f. 

Heinrico,  De,  32,  122. 
Heinse,  J.  J.,  283,  344  ff.,  423. 
Heinsius,  D.,  205,  208. 
Heinzelein  von  Konstanz,  146. 
Helbling,  Seifried,  137. 
Heldenbuch,  Dai,  59,  77  ff.,  148,  201. 
Heldenbtich,  Das  Dresdener,  148. 
Heldenlieder,  16. 
Heliand,   Der,   19    ff. ,    27,    36,    172, 

264. 

Helvig-Imhoff,  A.  von,  401. 
Henckell,  K.,  615. 
Hensel,  L.,  467. 
Herbert  von  Fritslar,  84  f. ,  113. 
Herder,  J.  F.,  xxii,  43,  165,  211,  245, 

265,   278,  293  ff.,  305,  307  f.,  311, 

3'7.  323,  339.  35*.  3^3,  3^8,  419  f., 

461,  476,  599  f.,  621. 
Herger,  57  f. 

Herman  von  Sachsenheim,  146. 
Herman  (Johannes)  von  Salzburg,  165. 
Herman   von    Thuringen,    Landgraf, 

124. 

Hermes,  J.  T. ,  290. 
Herrant  von  Wildonie,  114. 
Hertz,  W.,  590. 
Herwegh,  G.,  645  ff.,  552,  554. 
Herz,  Henriette,  469,  503. 
Hersog  Ernst,  46  ff..  51,  59,  83. 
Hergog  Ernst  (Volksbuch),  47. 
Hesekiel,  G.,  579, 


628 


INDEX. 


Hesler,   H.   von.      See   Heinrich  von 

Hesler. 

Hettner,  H.,  372,  580,  596. 
Heun,  C.  (H.  Clauren),  491. 
Heyne,  C.  G. ,  417. 
Heyse,  P..  583  f.,  586  f.,  590,  593  (., 

608  f. 
Hildeb  rands  lied.  Das,  xvii,  16  f.,  -7, 

44,78. 

Hildebrant,  162. 
Hillebrand,  K.,  597. 
Hiller,  J.  A.,  273. 
Hiltbold  von  Schwangau,  128. 
Hitnmel  and  Holle,  40. 
Hinrik  von  Alkmar,  151. 
Hippel,  T.  G.  von,  292. 
Historical  Lieder,  5,  7,  15  K.,  26,  32, 

i6if. 

Hitzig,  J.  E.,  552. 

Hbfische  Epos,  the.     See  Court  Epic. 
Hoffmann,  E.  T.  A.,  480  ff.,  491  f., 

498,  569. 
Hoffmann  von   Fallersleben,  A.    H., 

441,485,  649  f.,  573- 
Hofmann  von   Hofmannswaldau,   C. 

H.  von,  233,  241. 
Hofmannsthal,  H.  von,  621. 
Hoi  berg,  L..  190,  251,  324. 
Hblderlin,  F.,  283,  402,  408  ff.,  543, 

556,  614. 

Holtei,  K.  von,  495. 
Holty,  L.  H.  C.,  299,  301  f. 
Holz,  A.,  615,  617. 
Homer,  60,  70  f.,  76,  84,  194,  208,  263, 

300  ff.,  315,  367,  374,  376,  435. 
Hopfen,  H.,  595. 
Horace,  205,  208,  243,  275. 
Houwald,  C.  E.  von,  432  f. 
Hrabanische  Glossen,  12. 
Hrabanus.     See  Rabanus. 
Hrotsuith     (Roswitha)     of    Ganders- 

heim,  31,  182,  186. 
Huch,  R.,  621. 
Hugdieterich,  80  f. 
Hugo,  V.,  xxiii,  547,  562. 
Hugo  von  Montfort,  156. 
Hugo  von  Trimberg,  127,  137  f. 
Humanism,  xix,  168  ff.,  203  f. 
Humboldt,  A.  von,  366. 
Humboldt,  K.  W.  von,  365,  366,  516. 
Huns,  the,  4,  7  f.,  16,  59,  67  ff. 
Hitmen  Seyfried,  Lied  vom,  148. 
Hutten,  U.  von,  170,  175  f. 
Hymns.     See  Kirchenlieder. 
Hymns,  battle,  5,  7. 

Ibsen,  H.,562,  618. 
Iffland,  A.  W.,  342,  347,  421,  571,  616. 
Immermann,  K.   L.,  484,  493  ff.,  496 
ff-.  500,  557.  575- 


Individualism,    xxvii   f.,    237,    402   f., 

416,  477,  6n,  614. 
Insel   Felsenburg,    Die.      See    J.    G. 

Schnabel. 
Irenicus,  F.,  169. 
Isaac  and  seine  Sohne,  35. 
Isidorus,  De  fide  catholica  (Old  High 

German  translation),  14,  34;  Glosses, 

12.     See  also  Monseer  Fragmente. 

Jacobi,  F.  H.,  316. 

Jacobi,  J.  G.,  316. 

Jacobus  de  Cessolis,  146. 

Jager,  J.  (Crotus  Rubianus),  170. 

Tahn,  F.  L.,  502. 

Jean  Paul.     See  J.  P.  F.  Richter. 

Jensen,  W.,  595. 

Jordan,  W.,  585. 

Judith,  40. 

Julius,  Duke  of  Brunswick.  See  Hein- 
rich Julius. 

Jungdeutschland.  See  Young  Ger- 
many. 

Jungere  Titurel,  Der,  107. 

Jiinglingt  im  Feuerofen,  Die  drei, 
40. 

Jung-Stilling,  H.,  311. 

Jutta,  Spiel  von  Fraw.  See  T. 
Schernberk. 

Kaiserchronik,  Die,  43  f.,  53. 
Kalenberg,  Der  Pfaffe  von,  148  f. 
Kant,  I.,  xxii,  282,  293,  298,  341,  361 

ff.,  402,  428,  438,  477,  535. 
Karl  der  Grosse.      See    Charles    the 

Great. 

Karlmeinct,  145. 
Karsch  (Karschin),  L.,  259  f. 
Kaspar  von  der  Ron,  148. 
Kastner,  A.  G.,  252,  268. 
Keiser,  R.,  241. 
Keller,  G.,  xxiii,  518,  527,  556,  558, 

580  ff. ,  594,  608,  622. 
Kerner,  J.,  519,  522  ff.,  543. 
Keronische  Glossar,  Das,  12. 
Kind,  F.,  495  f. 
Kinkel,  G.,  551,  587. 
Kinkel,  Johanna,  551. 
Kirch  bach,  W.,  620. 
Kirchenlieder,    164    f.,    174    f.,    193, 

217  ff. 

Kirchhoff,  H.  W.,  150,  193. 
Kirchmayer,  T.  (Naogeorgus),  185. 
Klage,  Diu,  71. 
Klaj  (Clajus),  J.,  210. 
Kleist,    E.   C.  von,  xxii,  257,  258  f., 

272  f.,  276,  434. 
Kleist,  F.  von,  532. 
Kleist,  H.  von,  xxiii,  257,  397,  430, 

434  ff.,  442,  475,  534,  557,  622. 


INDEX. 


629 


Klinger,  F.  M.  von,  323,  375  ff.,  329, 
343,  346  t".,  533. 

Klopstock,  F.  G.,  xxi  f.,  126,  210,  241, 
243,  251,  255  f.,  259,  260  ff.,  273, 
283  f.,  294,  296,  302  f.,  316,  323, 
327-  33'.  336>  337  (note),  400.  437  ; 
Der  Messias,  242,  249,  260  ff.,  268, 
271,  309,  316  ;  Oden,  264  f. 

Klotz,  C.  A.,  280,  295. 

Knebel,  K.  L.  von,  349. 

Knigge,  A.  von,  290. 

Knighthood.     See  Chivalry. 

Knittelverse,  184,  189. 

Kobell,  F.  von,  559. 

Kolross,  J.,  184. 

Konig,  H.,  579. 

Konig,  J.  U.  von,  240,  264. 

Konig  Rother,  44  ff.,  47  f.,  51,  59,  77, 
80,  83. 

Konrad  von  Regensburg  (Rolands- 
lied),  44,51f.,  82. 

Konrad  von  Stoffel,  107. 

Konrad  von  Wurzburg,  no,  111  ff. 

Kbrner,  C.  G.,  335  f.,  363,  439. 

Korner,  K.  T.,  439,  441,  444. 

Kortum,  K.  A.,  289. 

Kosegarten,  G.  L.,  400  f. 

Kotzebue,  A.  von,  xxviii,  388  f.,  421, 

459.  494,  53°,  538,  57i- 
Kraft,  A.,  191. 
Kretschmann,  K.  F.,  266. 
Kretzer,  M.,  621. 
Kriiger,  B.,  185. 
Kruse,  H.,  605. 
Kudrun.     See  Gudrun. 
Kiihne,  G.,  515. 
Kiirenberg,  56  f. 
Kurz,  H.,  527  f.,  559. 
Kurz,  I.,  621. 

Lachmann,  K.,  60,  463,  574. 
Lamprecht    (Alexanderslied),    47,   61 

f.,  72,  82,  604. 

Landesmann,  H.  (H.  Lorm),  591. 
Land-und  Lehnrechtsbuch  (Schwaben- 

Spiegel),  139. 
Langbein,  A.  F.  E. ,  290. 
Lange,  S.  G.,  266,  264,  269  f. 
Laroche,  S.  von,  290,  313,  315,  458. 
L' Arrange,  A.,  605. 
Lassalle,  F.,  673,  578. 
Latin  literature,  u,  28  ff.,  168  ff. 
Latin    School  Comedy,   182,    184  ff., 

230. 

Laube,  H.,  502  f.,  513  f.,  549,  573. 
Lauremberg,  J.,  222  f. 
Laurin,  78. 

Lautverschiebung.  See  Soundshifting. 
Lavater,  G.  K.,  264,  316  f. 
Legends  of  the  Saints,  43  f.,  83. 


Leibniz,  G.  W.,  xxi,  239. 

Leich,  the,  5,  45. 

Leisen  (hymns),  164  f. 

Leisewitz,  J.  A.,  326,  329. 

Lenau,  N.,  523,  531,  641  ff.,  551,  555. 
588. 

Lenz,  J.  M.  R.,  323  ff.,  334. 

Lessing,  G.  E.,  xxi  ff.,  51,  143,  221, 
247,  250  f.,  259,  268  ff.,  296  f.,  309 
f.,  325  f.,  341,  402,  411,  621 ;  Emilia 
Galotti,  271,  279  f.,  317  f.,  327,  333 
f . ;  Hamburgische  Dramaturgic,  278 
f.,  285  ;  Laokooh,  274  ff.,  295,  422  ; 
Litteratur  •  Briefe,  273  ff. ,  293  f. ; 
Minna  von  Barnhelm,  xxvi  f. ,  276 
ff.  ;  Miss  Sara  Sampson,  271  f .  ; 
Nathan  der  \Veise,  269,  281  f.,  337. 

Leubing,  H.     See  Arigo. 

Leuthold,  H.,  688,  591. 

Leuthold  von  Savene,  128. 

Levin,  Rahel.  See  Rahel  Varnhagen 
von  Ense. 

Lewald,  A.,  514. 

Lewald,  F.,  584. 

Lichtenberg,  G.  C.,  291  f. 

Lichtwer,  M.  G.,  254. 

Liliencron,  D.  von,  615. 

Lillo,  G.,  271,  432. 

Lindau,  P.,  605. 

Lindemayr,  M.,  411. 

Lindener,  M.,  193. 

Lindner,  A.,  605. 

Lingg,  H.,  588. 

Liscow,  C.  L.,  252. 

Literary  societies  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  209  f. 

Liturgy,  Old  High  German  transla- 
tions of  the,  12  ff. 

Livlcindische  Reimchronik,  108. 

Logau,  F.  von,  221  f.,  224,  242. 

Lohengrin,  108,  462. 

Lohenstein,  D.  C.  von,   230,  233  f. , 

253- 

Lorm,  H.     See  H.  Landesmann. 
Lortzing,  A.,  496,  603. 
Lucidarius,  Der  kleine,  137. 
Luder,  P.,  169. 
Ludwig,  O.,  565,  668  ff.,  616. 
Ludwigslied,  Das,  26. 
Ludwig  the  German,  22  f. 
Ludwig  the  Pious,  18  f.,  22  f. 
Luther,  M.,  xix  f.,  6,  167,  169,  170  ff., 

1 88,  214,  217,  219  ff.,  224,  282,  431, 

439  f.,  614. 
Lyric  poetry,   beginnings  of,   15,  55. 

See  also  Minnesang. 

Mai  nnd  Reafior,  114,  145. 
Malbergische  (i/ossen,  12. 
Mnnesse,  R.,  133. 


630 


INDEX. 


Manuel,  N.,  179,  183. 

Marggraff,  H.,  514. 

Mariendichtung,  42,  56,  112,  165. 

Marino,  G.,  233. 

Markolf.     See  Morolf. 

Marlitt,  E. 

Marner,  Der,  132,  159. 

Marschner,  H.  A.,  496. 

Marx,  K.,  573. 

Matthisson,  F.  von,  399  f. 

Maurus,     R'abanus.      See     Rabanus 

Maurus. 

Maximilian  I.,  Kaiser,  146  f. ,  541. 
Mayer,  K.,  519,  524. 
Megerle,    Ulrich.      See    Abraham    a 

Santa  Clara. 

Meiningen  Court  Theatre,  the,  604  f. 
Meinloh  von  Sevelingen,  57. 
Meisl,  K.,  539. 
Meissner,  A.,  550  f. 
Meissner,  A.  G.,  290. 
Meistergesang     and      Meistersingers, 

127,  132,  156  ft.,  187  f.,  208. 
Melanchthon   (Schwarzerd),   P.,  176, 

179. 

Memento  mori,  39  f. 
Mendelssohn,  M.,  270,  273,  420. 
Menzel,  W.,  515  f. 
Merck,  J.  H.,  312. 
Mereau,  Sophie.     See  S.  Brentano. 
Merigarto,  41. 

Merseburger  Zauberspriiche,  12. 
Meyer,  C.  F.,  283,  583,  588,  607  f. 
Meyer,  H.,  368,  379. 
Meyer  von  Knonau,  J.  L.,  254. 
Meyerbeer,  G.  (J.  Beer),  496,  599. 
Meyr,  M.,  559. 
Michaelis,  J.  D.,  418. 
Middle  High  German,  xvi,  41. 
Migrations,    the    (Volkerwanderung), 

xvii,  1,  10,  27  f.,  59. 
Miller,  J.  M.,  299,  302,  316,  400. 
Milton,  J.,  xxi,  204,  248,  261  ff. 
Minne,  Minnedienst,  44,  54,  105,  109, 

115  ff.,  120,  125,  130. 
Minnesang,  xviii,  xxvi,  55  ff.,  62,  115 

ff.,  140,  156  f.,  163,  212,  241,  622. 
Moleschott,  J.,  573. 
Moliere,  J.  B.  P.,  xxi,  xxvii,  190,  251, 

276,  310,  434,  513,  539. 
Mommsen,  T.,  596. 
Monster  Fragmente,  the,  14,  19,  34. 
Montanus,  M.,  193. 
Moralische  Wochenschriften,  244. 
Morike,   E.,   xxiii,    522,  525  ff.,   528, 

543.  556,  559,  581- 
Moringer,  der  edele,  162. 
Moritz,  K.  P.,  346  f.,  432. 
Moris  von  Croon,  85  (note). 
Moriz  von  Hessen,  Landgraf,  200. 


Morolf  (Markolf),  48,  149. 

Moscherosch,  H.  M.,  226  ff. 

Mosen,  J.,  489  f. 

Mosenthal,  S.  H.  von,  538. 

Moser,  G.  von,  605. 

Mdser,  J.,  291,  294,  296. 

Mozart,  W.  A.,  344,  480,  494,  539. 

Miiller,  A.,  475  f. 

Miiller,  F.  (Maler  Miiller),  327  f.,  424. 

Miiller,  J.  von,  340. 

Miiller,  W.(  474,  486,  488  f.,  556. 

Milliner,  A.,  432  f.,  531. 

Miinch-Bellinghausen,    E.    F.  J.  von 

(F.  Halm),  538. 
Munchhausen,  Reisen    des  Freyherrn 

von,  231,  306. 
Mundt,  T.,  503,  515. 
Munich  group  of  poets,  the,   553  f., 

586  ff.,  611,  615. 
Murbacher  Hymne,  14. 
Murner,  T.,  177 ff.,  183,  189,  194,  225. 
Musaus,  J.  K.  A.,  290. 
Muscatblut,  160. 
Music  Drama.     See  Opera. 
Muspilli,  22  f.,  25. 
Mylius,  C.,  268  f. 
Mysticism,  xix,  25,  42,  145,  166  f. 

Naogeorgus.    See  T.  Kirchmayer. 
Napoleon,  378,  401  f.,  430,  434,  437 

ff.,  442  ff.,  450,  458,  469,  475,  485, 

492,    494,    502    f.,    509,    534,    536, 

540  f. 

National  epic.     See  Popular  epic. 
Neander,  J.,  238. 
Neidhart  Fuchs,  148. 
Neidhart  von  Reuenthal,  128  ff..  148. 
Nestroy,  J.,  539,  640,  543- 
Neuber,  J.  and  K.,  246  f.,  249,  268, 

272. 

Neukirch,  B.,  233,  240. 
Nibelungenlied,  Das,  9,  53,  56,  59  ff., 

76  f.,  79,  81  f.,  122,  140,  264,  390, 

533'  54r>  °°o. 
Nibelungen  saga,  the,  8  f.,  30,  59  f., 

553,  585,  599  ff 
Nicolai,  C.  F.,  270,  273,  290,  315  f., 

416,  421,  468. 
Nicolai,  O. ,  496. 
Niebuhr,  B.  G.,  476,  596. 
Nietzsche,  F.  W.,  283,  583,  611  ff. 
Nissel,  F.,  607. 
Nivardus  ( Ysengrimus),  54. 
Notker  I.  (The  Stammerer),  29. 
Notker  III.  (Labeo),  14,  29,  33  f.,  36, 

40. 

Novalis.     See  F.  von  Hardenberg. 
Nunnenpeck,  L.,  187. 

Odoaker,  7,  16. 


INDEX. 


631 


Oehlenschlager,  A.,  470,  495. 

Old  High  German,  xvi,  10  f. 

Olearius,  A.,  212. 

Opera  (Music  drama),  241,  278,  344, 

495  f. ,  598  ff.     See  also  Singspiele. 
Opitz,  M.,  xxi,  xxviii,  184,  204  ff.,  217, 

219,  222  f.,  240,  246,  461. 
Orendel,  48. 
Oriental  influence,  31,  47,  51,  212,  450, 

486  f.,  515. 
Or t nit,  80  f. 

Ossian,  266  f. ,  294,  302,  315. 
Osterspiele.     See  Easter  Plays. 
Oswald,  48  f. 

Oswald  von  Wolkenstein,  156  ff. ,  184. 
Otfrid   (EvangelienbucK),   13,    19,    23 

ff.,  27. 

Otto  the  Great,  28. 
Overbeck,  J.  F.,  449. 

Palmenordens,  Gesellschaft  des,  209  f. 

Paoli,  B.  (E.  Gliick).  551. 

Pariser  Glossen,  12. 

Paternoster,  42. 

Patriot,  Der,  244. 

Patriotic  lyric,  438  ff.,  485,  519,  530, 

598. 

Pauli,  J.,  149  f.,  168. 
Pegnitz,  Gesellschaft  der  Schafer  an 

der,  210. 
Pessimism,  409,  477  ff.,  531,  534,  543, 

555.  573,   59i,  600,  602,  604,  611, 

622. 

Pestalozzi,  J.  H.,  292,  493. 
Petrus,  Bittgesangan  den  heiligen,  26. 
Peutinger,  K.,  169. 
Pfaffe  Amis,  Der.     See  Der  Strieker. 
Pfeffel,  G.  K.,  254. 
Pfintzing,  M.,  147. 
Pfizer,  G.,  524. 
Physiologus,  31,  41. 
Picaresque  novel,  the.    See  Schelmen- 

romane. 

Pichler,  A.,  559. 
Pietism,  238,  309  f. 
Pietsch,  J.  V.,  240,  264. 
Pilgrim  of  Passau,  Bishop,  30,  60. 
Pirckheimer,  W.,  169,  191. 
Platen-Hallermiinde,    A.    von,     486, 

490,  495,  498  ff.,  554. 
Plattdeutsch  literature.     See  Dialect 

literature. 

Plautus,  1 68,  182,  269,  324. 
Pleier,  Der,  107. 

Poeta  Saxo  (De gestis  Caroli),  26. 
Polenlieder,  489  f. 
Political  lyric,  522,  544  ff. 
Pope,  A.,  242,  244,  251,  270. 
Popular  epic,  xvii,  56,  59  ff.,  122,  172. 
Popular  philosophers,  290  f. 


Postel,  C.  H.,  264. 

Postl,  K.  (C.  Sealsfield),  $79- 

Prehauser,  G.,  343. 

Prins  Evgen  der  edle  Ritter,  241. 

Prussian  School,  the.  See  Halle 
School. 

Prutz,  R.  E.,  544  f. 

Psalms,  Old  High  German  transla- 
tions of  the,  14,  26,  40. 

Pufendorf,  S.,  238  f. 

Puschmann,  A.,  160  (note). 

Piiterich  von  Reicherzhausen,  145. 

Pyra,  I.  J.,  256,  264,  269. 

Pytheas  of  Marseilles,  3. 

Raabe,  W. ,  595. 

Rabanus  Maurus,  18,  23,  29. 

Rabelais,  F.,  196  f.,  227. 

Rabener,  G.  W.,  223,  251  f.,  253. 

Rabenschlacht,  Die,  79  f. 

Rachel,  J.,  223. 

Racine,  J.  de,  xxi,  273,  397. 

Raimund,  F.,  539  f.,  543. 

Ramler,  K.  W.,  221,  259,  468. 

Ranke,  L.  von,  596. 

Raspe,  R.  E.,  306. 

Rationalism,  237  ff.,  280  ff.,  284,  291, 

411,  429. 

Ratpert  of  St  Gall,  29. 
Raumer,  F.  L.  G.  von,  476. 
Raupach,  E.  von,  494  f. 
Realism,  558,  573,  609  f.,  615  ff. 
Rebhun,  P.,  184,  186. 
Redwitz,  O.  von,  570. 
Reformation,  the,  xv,  xx  f.,  140,  143, 

145,  154,  161,  166  ff.,  188,  191,  198, 

217,  219  ff.,  237. 
Reformation  Drama,  the,  180  ff. 
Regenbogen,  132. 
Regensburg,  Burggraf  von,  57. 
Reichardt,  J.  F.,  468. 
Reichenauer  Glossen,  12. 
Reimarus,  H.  S.,  280. 
Reimreden,  Reimsprecher,  155. 
Reynke  de  Vos,  161  ff.,  194,  223,  357. 

See  also  Beast  epic  and  fable. 
Reinfried  von  Braunschweig,  114. 
Reinhold,  K.  L.,  363,  426. 
Reinmar  von  Hagenau,  119  f.,  130. 
Reinmar  von  Zweter,  131  f.,  158. 
Rellstab,  L.,  552. 
Renaissance,  the,   xv,    xix   f.,    xxviii, 

143,   188,  218  f.,  203  ff.,  234,  237, 

308. 

Renart,  Roman  de,  54. 
Reuchlin,  J.,  169  f.,  182. 
Reuter,  C.,  231. 
Reuter,  F.,  560,  606,  609. 
Reuter,  G.,  621. 
Revolution  of  1789,  the  French,  xxii, 


632 


INDEX. 


265,  347.  357.  362   374.  378  f.,  443, 

544- 
Revolution  of  1830,  the,  xxiii,  502,  504, 

511,  516,  572,  622. 
Revolution  of  1848,  the,  xxiii,  516  f. , 

544  ff.,  572,  622;  Lyric  of  the  Re- 
volution, 544  ff. 
Rhyme,  introduction  of,  24. 
Richardson,  S.,   xxi,    193,    253,   271, 

283  ff.,  290,  315,  354,  406. 
Richter,  J.   P.   F.  (Jean    Paul),    402, 

403  ff.,  463,  474,  481,  483,  498,  504, 

595- 

Riehl,  W.  H.,  595. 

Ringwaldt,  B.,  193  f. 

Rist,  J.,  210,  213. 

Ritter,  J.  W.,  460. 

Ritterdramen,  328,  342  f.,  435. 

Ritterromane,  469. 

Roberthin,  R.,  211  (note). 

Robinsonaden,  231. 

Rolandslied,  Das.     See  Konrad. 

Roling,  J.,  211  (note). 

Rollenhagen,  G.,  194. 

Romanticism,  xxviii,  105,  276,  297, 
306,  328,  392,  402  f.,  412,  446,  456, 
496  ff.,  501,  504  ff.,  516  ff.,  525  f., 
547.  557 »  573>  622  ;  The  Romantic 
School,  xxiii,  270,  357,  416  ff.,  540; 
Romantic  drama,  430  ff.,  493,  518  ; 
The  Heidelberg  Romanticists,  468 
ff.,  528;  Romanticism  in  Berlin, 
468  ff.  ;  The  Decay  of  Romanticism, 
480  ff. 

Roquette,  O.,  589. 

Rosegger,  P.,  609. 

Rosengarten,  Der,  78. 

Rosengarten,  Laurin  nnd  der  kleine, 
78. 

Rosenpliit,  H.,  166,  164,  181.  187,  189. 

Rosmer,  E.     See  E.  Bernstein. 

Roswitha.     See  Hrosuith. 

Rather,  Konig,     See  Konig  Rather. 

Rousseau,  J.  J.,  xxii,  5,  51,  231,  237, 
244,  283  f.,  289,  291  f.,  297,  307, 

310-  3*5<  3'7.  324  f-.  4<>i. 
Ruckert,    F.,  441,  486  ff.,   508,   587, 

593- 

Rudolf  von  Ems,  no  ff. 
Rudolf  von  Fenis,  118. 
Ruge,  A..  573. 
Rumezland,  132. 
Runic  alphabet,  5  f. 
Ruodlieb,  15,  32  f.,  96,  no. 

Saar,  F.  von,  608. 

Sacher-Masoch,  L.  von,  609. 

Siichs,  H.,  xxviii,  155,  160  1.,  i8r,  186 

ff.,  201,  215,  319. 
Sachsenchronik,  Die,  139. 


Sachsen Spiegel,  Der  (Spigelder  Saren), 

139- 

Salis-Seewis,  J.  G.  von,  400. 

Salman  und  Morolf,  48. 

Salzman,  J.  D.,  311,  323. 

Saphir,  M.  G.,  514. 

Satire,  beginnings  of,  57. 

Savigny,  F.  K.  von,  461,  463,  476. 

Schachbuch,  Das,  145  f. 

Schack,  A.  F.  von,  587. 

Schede,  P.  (Melissus),  204. 

Schefer,  L.,  486. 

Scheffel,  J.  V.  von,  551,  587,  689  f. 

Scheffler,  J.  (Angelus  Silesius),  217  ff. 

Scheidt,  K.,  194. 

Schelling,  Caroline.     See  C.  Schlegel. 

Schelling,  F.  W.  J.  von,  415,  418,  428 
f.,  461,  476  f. 

Schelmenromane  (Picaresque  novels), 
yxi,  109,  228  f.,  231  f. 

Schembartlauf,  181. 

Schenk,  E.  von,  494. 

Schenkendorf,  M.  von,  439,  441. 

Scherer,  W.,  597. 

Schernberk,  T.  (Spiel  von  Fra-w 
fatten),  180  f. 

Schicksalstragodie,  the,  394,  432  ff., 
465,  482,  496,  500,  531  f. 

Schikaneder,  E. ,  344,  539. 

Schiller,  J.  F.  von,  xxvii,  298,  301,  306 
f.,  328  ff.,  336  ff.,  363  ft'.,  376  ff.,  387 
ff.,  399,  401,  411,  415,  417  f.,  426, 
431.  434.  439,  443  f-,  446.  451,  471, 
484,  509.  514,  527,  S29»  534,  567, 
583,  621  f.  ;  Writings  on  aesthetics, 
363  ff.  ;  Die  Brattt  von  Messina, 
387,  392  ff.,  432;  Don  Carlos,  337 
ff-i  369.  531;  Ft  f  sco,  332  ff.,  337; 
Relations  with  Goethe,  340,  348 
f.,  356,  360,  366  ff.,  380;  Histori- 
cal writings,  339  f.,  369,  372; 
Die  Jungfrau  von  Orleans,  390  ff., 
415 ;  Kabale  und  Liebe,  271,  332, 
333  ff.  ;  Lyric  poetry,  258,  331, 
335  f->  3,40,  366  f.,  376  f.,  409; 
Maria  Stuart,  389  f.,  392,  397; 
Die  Rauber,  308,  319,  327  f.,  329 
ff.,  332  ff.,  337,  421 ;  Wallenstein, 
224,  337,  369  ff..  374,  387,  389,  392, 

395  f-.    533-    566;    Wilhelm    Tell, 

396  ff.,   533,    562;    Xenien.      See 
Goethe. 

Schink,  J.  F.,  328  (note). 

Schlaf,  J.,  615,  617. 

Schlege!,  A.  W.  von,  250,  284,  300, 
306,  368,  416,  417  ff.,  420  f.,  458, 
462  f.,  468  f.,  500,  505,  510. 

Schlegel,  Caroline  (C.  Schelling),  418. 

Schlegel,  Dorothea,  420,  469. 

Schlegel,  F.  von,  250,  368,  403,  416 


INDEX. 


633 


ff.,  419  ff.,  426,  459,  468  (.,  475,  47&, 

487,  500.  614. 
Schlegel,  J.  A.,  260  f.,  417. 
Schlegel,  J.  E.,  260  f.,  337,  417. 
Schleiermacher,   F.   E.   D.,  420,  428, 

429,  469,  477. 

Schmid,  F.  von  (Dranmor),  591. 
Schmid,  H.  von,  559. 
Schmidt,  E.,  597. 
Schmidt,  J.,  574. 
Schmidt,  K.  (M.  Stirner),  611. 
Schnabel,  J.  G.  (Die  Insel  Felsenburg), 

231. 

Schneckenhurger,  M.,  544  f. 
Schnitzler,  A.,  620  f. 
Schonaich,  C.  O.  von,  249. 
Schone,  K.,  328  (note). 
Schonthan,  F.  von,  605. 
School  Comedy.      See  Latin    School 

Comedy. 
Schopenhauer,  A.,  447,  477  ff.,  510, 

573,  591,  600,  604,  611  f. 
Schopenhauer,  J. ,  477  f. 
Schottelius,  J.  G.,  209. 
Schreiber,  A.  W.,  328  (note). 
Schreyvogel,  J.,  530. 
Schroder,  F.  L.,  326,  341  f. 
Schubart,  C.  F.  D.,  329,  331  f. 
Schubart,  Sophie.     See  S.  Brentano. 
Schubert,  F.,  462,  488,  529. 
Schticking,  L.,  555. 
Schulze,  E.  K.  F.,  484  f. 
Schumann,  R.,  484,  496. 
Schumann,  V.,  193. 
Schupp  (Schuppius),  J.  B.,  223  f. 
Schurz,  K.,  551. 
Schiitz,  H.,  207. 
Schwab,  G.,  519,  624. 
Schwabe,  J.  J.,  250. 
Schivabenspiegel,  Der,  139. 
Schwabe  von  der  Heyde,  E.,  208. 
Schwankdichtung,   109,   148    ff.,   155, 

189,  193. 
Scott,  W.,  xxiii,  460,  491  ff.,  496,  579, 

589- 

Sealsfield,  C.     See  K.  Postl. 

Seidel,  H.,  595. 

Sempacher  Scklacht,  Die,  162. 

Sequences,  Latin,  29,  32. 

Seume,  J.  G.,  401. 

Seuse(Suso),  H.,  166  f. 

Seyfried,  Das  Lied  vom  htirnen,  148. 

Shakespeare,  W.,  xx  f. ,  105,  201,  213, 
215,  250,  264,  272  f.,  276,  279,  284, 
296,  300,  307,  310  f.,  324,  326,  333, 
34i,  346,  352,  359,  361,  372,  393- 
411,  417  f.,  424,  434,  484,  498,  534, 
540,  549.  569,  588. 

Shrovetide  Plays.  See  Fastnachts- 
spiele. 


Sieten  weisen  Meister,  Die,  149. 

Siebenzahl,  Von  der,  42. 

Siegfried,  8  f.,  59,  61  ff.,  77  f.,  81,  190. 

Sigenot,  79. 

Silesius,  Angelus.     See  J.  Scheffler. 

Simrock,  K.,  585,  590. 

Singspiele,  202,  273,  318,  344. 

Skeireins  (Gothic),  7. 

Soden,  F.  J.  H.  von,  328  (note),  343. 

Soundshifting        (Lautverschiebung), 

first,  4. 

Soundshifting,  second,  10,  24. 
Speculum  humana  salvationis,  145. 
Spec,  F.  von,  218  ff. 
Spener,  P.  J.,  238. 
Spervogel,  Der,  67  f. ,  135. 
Spielhagen,  F.,  511,  558,  677  ff.,  594. 
Spielleute,  xvii,  28,  32,  40,  46,  49,  52 

f-,  59,  77,  107,  140. 
Spielmannsdichtung,48f.,  52  f.,  59,  73, 

78,80. 

Spindler,  K.,  492. 

Spinoza,  B.,  238,  316,  428,  513,  558. 
Spohr,  L.,  496. 
Spruchdichtung,  67 f.,  122,  131  f.,  135, 

140,  155,  204. 
St  Gall,  ii,  29,  33,  39. 
St  Gall,  Monk  of,  26. 
Stael-Holstein,  G.  de,  xxv,  418  ff.,  470, 

532. 

Stainhowel,  H.,  150. 
Steffens,  H.,  415,  429. 
Stein  mar,  130  f. 

Stieglitz,  Heinrich  and  Charlotte,  515. 
Stifter,  A.,  559. 
Stirner,  M.     See  K.  Schmidt. 
Stolberg,  C.  zu,  302,  307. 
Stolberg,  F.  L.  zu,  302,  307. 
Storm,  T.,  xxiii,  518,  555,  683  f.,  594 

f.,  608  f. 

Strachwitz,  M.  von,  554. 
Stranitzky,  J.  A.,  343. 
Strauss,  D.  F.,  511,  513,  520,  627,  558, 

572.  594,  612. 
Strassburger  Eide,  the,  22. 
Strieker,  Der,  106  f.,  108  (.,  148  f. 
Sturm  und  Drang,  xxii,  263  f.,  266, 

279,  283,  294  ff.,  305,  307  ff.,  323  ff., 

401,  403,  405,  408,  411.  421,  430, 

435,  456.  469  f-,  49i,  493,  499,  S". 
Suchenwirt,  P.,  155. 
Sudermann,  H.,  616  ff.,  620  f. 
Summa  Theologies,  42. 
Suso,  H.     See  H.  Seuse. 
Swabian  School,  the,  618  ff.,  540  f., 

543,  586. 
Swiss  literature,  xxiv,  106,  nof.,  114, 

118,   130  f.,   150,   182  f.,  243  f.,  248 

f.,  267,  291  f.,  400,  411,  557  f.,  s8q 

ff.,  607  f. 


634 


INDEX. 


Sybel,  H.  von,  596. 
Sylvester,  44. 

Tacitus,  C.,  5,  266. 
Tagelied,  the,  57,  127,  158,  164. 
Tanhauser,  Der,  130,  146,  162  f. 
Tanhiiuser  (ballad),  162  ff.,  467. 
Tanzlieder,  164. 

Tatian  (Evangelienharmonie),  18  f. 
Tauler,  J.,  xix,  166,  167  f.,  217. 
Taylor,  G.     See  A.  Hausrath. 
Terence,  31,  34,  168,  182,  184,  186. 
Tersteegen,  G.,  238. 
Teue.rdank  (Tewrdannck),  147. 
Theodorich    the  Great  (Dietrich  von 

Bern),  8,  10,  16,  77  ff. 
Theophilus,  180. 
Thibaut,  A.  F.  J.,  461. 
Thilo  von  Culm,  145. 
Thirty  Years'  War,  the,  xx,  200,  203, 

226  f.,  234,  237  (339  f.,  369  ff.). 
Thomasin  von  Zirclcere,  134  f. 
Thomasius,  C.,  239  f. 
Thomson,  J. ,  242,  258,  272. 
Thummel,  M.  A.  von,  289. 
Tieck,  Dorothea,  417. 
Tieck,  J.   L.,  25,  328,  392,  416,  418, 

420,  421  ff.,  429  ff.,  447,  459  ff.,  467 

f.,   474,  483,   484,   493,  497  (note), 

498,  500,  563,  581. 
Tiedge,  C.  A.,  400. 
Torring,  J.  A.  von,  343,  565. 
Treitschke,  H.  von,  556. 
Triller,  D.  W.,  264. 
TrojanischeKrieg,  Der  (in  prose),  145, 
Tschudi,  ^Egidius,  395. 
Tundalus,  Vision  of,  44. 

Uhland,  J.  L.,  463,  471,  509,  518  ff., 

523  f.,  526  ff.,  543,  586. 
Ulfilas.     See  Wulfila. 
Ulrich  von  Eschenbach,  108. 
Ulrich  von  Gutenberg,  117. 
Ulrich  von    Liechtenstein,    109,   116, 

130  f. 

Ulrich  von  Singenberg,  127  i. 
Ulrich  von  Tiirheim,  97  f.,  103. 
Ulrich  von  dem  Tiirlin,  97. 
Ulrich  von  Winterstetten,  130. 
Ulrich  von  Zatzikhoven,  106. 
Usteri,  J.  M.,  411. 
Uz,  J.  P.,  256,  257  ff.,  301  f.,  336. 

Varnhagen  von  Ense,  K.  A.,  469  f., 

506,  516. 
Varnhagen  von  Ense,  Rahel,  469,  505, 

516. 

Vernitnfftler,  Der,  244. 
Viebig,  C.,  621. 
Virgil,  20,  30,  34,  2C?8,  275,  385. 


Virginal,  79. 

Vischer,  F.  T.,  527. 

Vischer,  P.,  191. 

Vlacich  (Flacius),  M.,  19. 

Vocabularius  Sancti  Galti,  12. 

Vogt,  K.,  573. 

Vb'lkerwanderung.     See  Migrations. 

Volksbiicher,  148. 

Volksepos.     See  Popular  epic. 

Volkslied,  the,  xxii,  128,  130,  161  ff., 

174  ff.,  212,  227,  230,  241,  296,  304 

f.,46if. 

Voltaire,  xxii,  271,  284,  387,  468,  536. 
Voss,  J.  H.,  288,  299  ff.,  327,  340,  374, 

400  f.,  410  f.,  461  f. 
Voss,  R.,  620. 

Wackenroder,  W.  H.,  421  ff.,  425, 
481. 

Wagner,  H.  L.,  323,  327. 

Wagner,  R.,  470,  496,  543,  598  ff., 
611  f.,  621  f.  ;  Der  fliegende  Hol- 
lander, 599  ;  Lohengrin,  599 ;  Die 
Meislersinger  von  Nurnberg,  xxvii, 
603  f. ;  Parsifal,  604,  612 ;  Rienti, 
598  f.  ;  Der  King  des  Nibelungen, 
534,  566,  598,  600  ff.  ;  Tannhiiuser, 
599,  604  ;  Tristan  und  Isolde,  602  f. 

Waiblinger,  W.,  525,  528. 

Waitz,  G.,  596. 

Waldere  (Anglo-Saxon),  17. 

Waldis,  B.,  150  f.,  183  f. 

Waltharius  manu  fortis.  See  Ekke- 
hard. 

Walther  von  der  Vogelweide,  116  f., 
119,  120  ff.,  135,  156,  158  f.,  311, 

473,  5°8<  5!9- 
Wappendichter,  155. 
Wartburgkrieg,  Der,  158. 
Weber,  F.  W.,  590. 
Weber,  K.  M.  von,  495  f. 
Weckherlin,  G.  R.,  204  f. 
Weidmann,  P.,  328  (note). 
Weihnachtsspiele.       See     Christmas 

plays. 

Weise,  C.,  230  f. 
Weisse,  C.  F.,  xxviii,  272  f.,  337  (note), 

433- 

Weissenburger  Katechismus,  Der,  13. 
Werner,  A.  G.,  427. 
Werner,  F.  L.  Z.,  397,  430  ff.,  437, 

480. 

Wernher  (Lief  von  der  maget),  42. 
Wernher  ( Von  den  vier  Rddern),  42. 
Wernher  der  Gartensere  (Meier  Helm- 

brechf),  32,  109  f.,  148. 
Wernher  von  Elmdorf,  133. 
Wernigke,  C.,  241  f. 
Wessobrunner  Gebet,  Das,  14  f. 
Wickram,  J.,  85,  150,  192  f.,  226. 


INDEX. 


635 


Widmann,  G.  (Histori  Peter  Leiven), 

149. 
Wieland,  C.  M.,  xxi,   243,  264,  273, 

283  ff.,  303,   310,   317,  337  (note), 

339,  344,  346,  349,  362  f.,  421,  452, 

485.  581,  592  f. 
Wienbarg,  L. ,  502  f. 
Wigamur,  107. 
Wilbrandt,  A.,  595,  605. 
Wildenbruch,  E.  von,  605. 
Wildermuth,  O.  von,  583. 
Willem  (Reinart  de  Voz),  151. 
Willeram  von  Ebersburg,  40. 
Wimpfeling,  J.,  169,  177,  182,  204. 
Winckelmann,  J.  J.,  xxii,  274  f.,  352, 

354.  379,  4",  4*9- 
Windesbach,   Herr  von    (Der   Wins- 

beke),  133  f.,  140. 
Winfrith.     See  Bonifacius. 

Winsbecke,  Der.     See  Windesbach. 

Winsbekin,  Diu,  134. 
Wirnt  von  Gravenberg,  106. 
Wisse,  C,  145. 
Wittenweiler,  H.,  148. 
Wochenschriften,  Moralische,  244. 


Wolf,  F.  A.,  60. 

Wolff,  C.  von,  240,  256. 

Wolff,  J..  590. 

Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  xxvi,  90  ff., 
99,  118,  126,  127,  158  f.  ;  Parzival, 
82,  91  ff.,  99  f-,  104,  107  f.,  145, 
T47i  J59.  228  f.,  264;  Titurel,  96 
f. ;  Willehalm,  91,  97  f. 

Wulnla(Ulfilas),  6  f . 

Wyl,  N.  von.    See  Niklas  von  Wyl. 

Wyss,  J.  R.,  231. 

Young  Germany,  xxiii,  442,  488,  492, 
498  f.,  501  ff.,  520,  538,  544,  550, 
554  f-,  557,  570,  572  ff.,  584. 

Zachaiia,  J.  F.  W.,  251,  258,  289. 
Zedlitz,  J.  C.  von,  540  f.,  543. 
Zelter,  K.  F.,  449,  468. 
Zesen,  P.  von,  210,  232. 
Ziegler,  H.  A.  von,  232  f. 
Zimmermann,  J.  G.,  291. 
Zincgref,  J.  W.,  204  f. 
Zinzendorf,  N.  L.  von,  238. 
Zschokke,  H.,  492  f. 


THE   END. 


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A  HISTORY  OF  AMERICAN 
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